The Jenolan Caves: An Excursion in Australian WonderlandCook, Samuel
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The Jenolan Caves: An Excursion in Australian Wonderland
Cook, Samuel
Australia -- Description and travel; Caves; Jenolan Caves (N.S.W.)
There are three distinct types of beauty in this Palace--the simple, the
compound, and the elaborately complex. The simple forms are extremely
massive. To call them "pretty" would be to convey an entirely erroneous
idea of their quality. The stalagmitic features are immense. One of them
is a gigantic pillar, built up in sections from an enormous basement on
a rocky mound, over which it has flowed like milk-white lava. About a
foot or so above the crest of the rock it is several feet thick, and at
one time its upper surface formed a disc or table. On this flat top was
gradually formed another white mass of somewhat smaller proportions,
tapering towards the top, or second platform, from which rises another
stalagmitic section, expanding from the base, and this process is
repeated to the very summit, so that the beautiful white pillar has a
serrated appearance. For unsullied whiteness and peculiarity of
structure it will bear favourable comparison with the most remarkable
pillars in the cave. Near to it is another pyramidal-shaped mass of even
greater bulk, which tapers as it rises towards the stalactitic
formation, and harmonises with it in grandeur.
From the right hand side of the base another and smaller stalagmite
rears its head, and immediately above it, and to the right of it, are
masses of formation hanging like stalactites of various lengths, and
bound together in solid but graceful combination. Farther still to the
right is an immense stalactite, shaped like the body of a kingfish minus
its tail. The floor of this part of the Palace is also very attractive,
by reason of its graceful curves and undulations, and miniature rippled
terraces. The more complex part of the Palace to the left begins with a
magnificent piece of shawl formation, from the lower end of which
depends a splendid stalactite. The shawl is draped at an angle of about
22-1/2 degrees, and in a line with its principal portion the wall is
hung with marvellous stalactites, one of which is of great length, and
clear as crystal. Then there is a cavernous place, from the shades of
which emerge rounded masses of white formation, fringed with myriads of
stalactites. From behind these the same kind of ornamentation is
repeated again and again until a ledge of rocks is reached, which slopes
down to a marvellously beautiful stalagmite several feet high, and which
rises from the floor immediately underneath the stalactite at the end of
the shawl before mentioned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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