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.)
The first of these caves is very deep, with a steep ascent. The curator
has penetrated it to a depth of 160 feet. He was lowered into one shaft
100 feet perpendicular, and found in it a number of interesting bones,
which he sent to the museum of the Department of Mines in Sydney. One of
them resembled the tusk of a tiger, and was thought to be too large to
have been in the jaw of any Australian animal extant. The next known
cave is called the "Glass Cave," on account of the transparent beauty of
its adornments, which are equal to those of the Imperial Cave. The third
is unexplored, but there is reason to believe that it is very extensive.
The fourth, which seems to run southward, is also unexplored. Some time
ago the curator was lowered into it, a depth of 80 feet, but he has not
been able to make any examination of its interior. Next is the Mammoth
Cave, so called because of its vast chambers. One of these is estimated
to be upwards of 300 feet high, 100 feet long, and 100 feet wide. It
contains a large amount of formation, the prettiest portions of which
are about 200 feet from the floor. The roof is so high that the
magnesium lamp is hardly strong enough to bring it into view. There is a
very long and wide chamber leading from this towards the south, with a
large number of "drops" of from 100 to 150 feet, many of them
unexplored. The length of this chamber is about 10 chains--that is,
one-eighth of a mile. From this the curator was lowered into another
chamber of vast proportions, and from 60 to 100 feet deeper down,
through solid limestone. At the end of its undulating floor he came to a
river about six feet wide and nine inches deep, the water of which was
running in a strong stream. Round about are many little caverns full of
bones. The next is the Bow Cave, to which reference has previously been
made. It is a small cavern, and, as has already been explained, there
were found in it six bullock bows, together with two harrow pins, and a
pair of hinges; supposed to have been "planted" there by McEwan, the
bush-ranger, about the year 1839. This cave has about it numerous small
drives not yet explored. Farther on is a pretty cave, running, with a
gentle slope, two or three hundred yards into the mountains, and
containing numerous chambers and water-holes. Five or six of these
chambers only have been explored, and they contain some very handsome
stalactites. Farther on are two or three other caves, to the entrance of
which only the curator has been. Above all these caves a strong stream
of water sinks suddenly into the ground. It is believed that this feeds
the river in the Mammoth Cave, and afterwards flows into the Imperial,
and comes to the surface again in Camp Creek, on the other side of the
limestone range, where it bursts up suddenly from between the boulders,
as though there were underneath them a broken 42-inch city water-pipe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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