The Jenolan Caves: An Excursion in Australian WonderlandCook, Samuel
History
The Jenolan Caves: An Excursion in Australian Wonderland
Cook, Samuel
Australia -- Description and travel; Caves; Jenolan Caves (N.S.W.)
About 35 yards from the entrance to the Imperial Cave, northward, and
thence about 30 yards east, is "The Wool Shed." The approach to it is
narrow and low. In some places it has been formed by blasting, and in
others by excavation through a red, sandy substance underneath the
limestone. It widens as the Wool Shed is approached. In the floor is a
hole going down to the former entrance to the cave, now closed by a
stone wall. The Wool Shed is about 20 feet wide, 15 feet high, and 70
feet long. The formation over a large part of the walls and roof
resembles the fleeces of sheep, hanging about and spreading over the
shelving rocks in all directions. There is one pelt which suggests the
"Golden Fleece" torn by Jason from the tree trunk in the poison wood
guarded by the huge serpent spangled with bronze and gold, and which was
soothed to slumber by the magic song of Orpheus. The surroundings are as
strange as those of the lonely cave where dwelt Cheiron the Centaur, who
taught the leader of the Argonauts "to wrestle and to box, and to hunt,
and to play upon the harp." But perhaps, after all, it may be only an
indifferent limestone representation of a fellmongering establishment.
The woolly skins and scraps are mirrored on the retina. The impressions
produced by the sense of vision depend not upon the optic nerve, but
upon the imagination. Simply as a spectacle, however, the Wool Shed is
curious and entertaining. The blocks of stone near to the base are for
the most part plain, and the floor is broken and rugged.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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