384 



♦ KNOWLEDGE • 



[Nov. 7, 1884. 



THE FISH RIVER CAVES, NEAR 



SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA. 



By J. E. RicHTER. 



THESE caves are situated about 80 miles west of 

 Sydney, Australia, and are some 3,000 ft. above sea- 

 level, in an interesting mountainous locality. They were 

 first discovered by a party of settlers in 1866, while in 

 pursuit of bushrangers. 



Apart from the cave sights, that attract so many visi- 

 tors, the locality surrounding affords an interesting study 

 to the geologist and student of nature. A wall or ridge of 

 limestone, hard as flint, and several hundred feet in height, 

 stretches across country for several miles, sometimes as a 

 ridge, at other places as an arch or biidge spanning streams. 

 One of these creeks, containing a stream measuring several 

 square feet in section, disappears under the limestone, 

 embouching again a mile or so further down. Its subter- 

 ranean course has never yet been traced. Contiguous to 

 its course, little doubt exists of many undiscovered caves, 

 possibly surpassing in beauty those at present shown to de- 

 lighted visitors. In ages past this ridge of liruestone, now so 

 high above the sea, and eighty miles from it, was the bottom 

 of the warm ocean, the abode and regenerative ground of 

 the myriad tribe of shell-fich. Unearthing a detached piece 

 of limestone from the red soil, different forms of shell 

 are discernible over the surface of it, a substance in the soil 

 eating or corroding certain parts of the limestone more than 

 others, leaving the shell forms raised above the surface of 

 it. Viewing these forms, it is significant that none of the 

 shells originally forming a part substance of this limestone 

 were larger than one and a half inches in any section. The 

 line of junction of the limestone with other rocks is visible 

 at several places. On the we&tern side an indurated 

 Silurian schist formation closes in upon it. At the other, 

 softer schists. Another creek, after having worn out a 

 passage for itself through this wall of limestone, imme- 

 diately joins the stream beforementioned ; and it is near 

 the junction of these streams the caves are situated, so 

 far discovered, and as shown to the visitor by the caretaker 

 — the caves having been wisely reserved by the Govern- 

 ment of New South Wales from any private proprietary 

 speculation or interference. Where these streams have 

 bored a passage through several hundred yards of this wall 

 of limestones, traces are left sufficiently numerous to show 

 that said streams had originally worked through at a much 

 higher level ; in after ages grinding deeper to the present 

 bed. 



These caves are singularly attractive. The intricate gal- 

 leries, halls, and passages in their subterranean scenes are 

 so truly magnificent that a person having once seen them 

 is desirous of viewing them again and again, new features 

 being presented to his view at each visit and at every turn. 

 The strange forms that have been assumed by the drippings 

 from the limestone are almost infinite, and are in beauty 

 unsurpassable in their own character elsewhere. When 

 lighted up by the incandescent magne.sium wire, or other 

 strong light, these sublime chambers, so strangely formed 

 by Nature's hands, present a gorgeous spectacle, filled as 

 they are with drooping sprays, coral growths, delicate 

 pendants, gigantic columns, handsome shawls, huge cur- 

 tains, and shadowy arches of the most fantastic kind. There 

 is a good coach-road from the railway at Tarana to the 

 caves, thirty-six miles. 



The cavernous limestone of the Fish River is bluish- 

 brown in colour, compact and hard ; fractures easily under 

 the hammer, leaving an edge sharp as that of flint. It is 

 capable of taking a high polish, almost equal to that of the 



New Zealand greenstone, so much used in jewellery orna- 

 mentation at the present time in Australasia. At different 

 places about the caves, where the configuration of the sur- 

 face has forced the many animals of the kangaroo species,, 

 large and small, to travel on any narrow trail, the lime- 

 stone is worn so smooth and polished by the feet of these 

 indigenous animals that the face (f the visualist is reflected 

 to him as in a mirror at favourable spots. 



The length of the numerous caves in their various turLS 

 and curves, ascents and descents, would probably measuj-e 

 several miles, taking about three days to view, while the 

 student may spend three days more to advantage inspecting 

 the many strange overground features of the neighbour- 

 hood, including the unique surrounding woodland scenepy, 

 typically Australian. 



The fissured condition of some of the limestone in this 

 locality is due to volcanic upheaval disturbance. Many 

 uf the smaller fissures have been filled since the upheaval 

 by silicates and spar, some coloured, denoting the pre- 

 sence of oxides of iron and probably other metals, from 

 which also the hard carbonates deposited in such lovely 

 and various forujs on the walls, or dependent from the 

 domes and arches of the caves below, have obtained their 

 variegated and diversified colours. Some of these silicates 

 present an example of that rare combination, stratification 

 and crystallisation. 



For two or three years after discovery the more accessible 

 caves were partly despoiled by iconoclastic-inclined visitors 

 breaking away the best stalacites and cairying them off t(y 

 adorn their homes. Then the Government assumed charge 

 of these marvels of nature, since which time the caves- 

 are locked at their various entrances by iron gates, and 

 can now only be seen by the guidance of the caretaker, 

 whose service is free of charge, the material for display- 

 ing light and cost of sustenance while there being the 

 only charges made. Much improvement has been and is- 

 being made throughout to enable visitors, including ladies, 

 to better see the many wondrous sights without the- 

 physical exertion that was necessary in former years. 



Trenches ha^•e been dug in many places, so that one can 

 now walk along upright where once it was necessary to- 

 crawl along on hands and knees, or wriggle along, cater- 

 pillar fashion, through passages that measured but 10 or 

 12 inches from floor to roof. Bridges have been thrown 

 across chasms and pools, wire-ladders and stairs have been 

 fixed at difficult ascents or descents, iron or wire-rope rail- 

 ing guards the more dangerous side-lines and pits, and 

 rocks and other obstructions have been cleared away. 



It would be difficult, as it would be unwise, to compare- 

 these caves with the Mammoth Caves of Kentucky or the 

 more recently-discovered Luray Caves of Virginia, each 

 having its own characteristics — the Mammoih, for their 

 vastness and rosette-covered walls ; the Luray, for their 

 tessellar pendent features; the Fish River, for their spiked 

 and filigree glasswork and shawl-draped roofs and walls. 



The student of nature, accustomed to find the most 

 exquisite symmetry, form, and colour where light and 

 warmth are in most abundance, is surprised to find here, as 

 in other caverns, that the most charming forms, figures, 

 and colours have been slowly created in these underground 

 corridors, in a temperature not more than 60° Fahr., and 

 in darkness as intense as that of some parts of the Black 

 Tartarus, as believed in by the ancients. This silent, 

 enduring evidence rather upsets the assertions of those 

 theorists who assert that the richest colours are not 

 producible except by the aid of light or heat, or both 

 conjointly. 



In soQje of these caves we were often confronted by what 

 at first sight has the appearance of the filigree work of the 



