The name of Blaxland recalls the fact that it was not until 1813 that a route across the Blue Mountains was discovered. Near to the railway line is the track found by Wentworth, Blaxland, and Lawson, over what had theretofore been regarded as an impassable barrier range to the westward of Sydney. On speeds the train, still rising and rising, and revealing a series of views remarkable for grandeur and the sylvan monotony of the gum tree, until at Katoomba platform, 66 miles from Sydney, the elevation is 3,350 feet above sea-level. And so the journey continues past abrupt rocks, gloomy gorges, sparkling waterfalls, rocky glens, bold bluffs, leafy gullies, fairy dells and vernal valleys, until it descends the Great Zigzag into Lithgow, falling about 700 feet in less than five miles! Lithgow is 96 miles from Sydney, and although the Blue Mountains have been passed, the altitude is still about 3,000 feet. Lithgow is a busy place, apparently destined to become a manufacturing centre. There are already in the vicinity numerous coal mines, potteries, and other works. From this point to Tarana the country varies from agricultural and pastoral to rugged scenery. The distance from Tarana to the caves is 35 miles, which has to be traversed by coach or on horseback. At present the ordinary course is to take coach on the arrival of the train at Tarana and drive to Oberon the same evening. The road is good, the district agricultural, and the scenery agreeable. The course from Oberon to the caves is through a less settled country, and for a considerable distance through unsettled primeval "bush," occupied chiefly by the wallaby, the opossum, the bandicoot, many varieties of the parrot kind that flaunt their gaudy plumage in the sunlight, and the native pheasant or lyre bird (_Menura superba_) which is a veritable mimic. The country is broken and mountainous and in winter the temperature is low, with cutting winds and severe frosts; in summer the heat is fervent. These silent forces in conjunction with brawling mountain torrents have been large factors in the production of the natural phenomena which are to be found in the valley dammed by the limestone "dyke" in which the caves are formed.