THE JENOLAN CAVES. 



3'9 



the upper vaults of " The Cathedral," and thence by long flights of stone steps to the 

 outer air. An oppressive burden of memories is gathered by a single visit to this great 

 Cave awful depth of gloom, vastness, incompleteness, chaos, scraps of beauty perfected 

 amongst mountains of stupendous ruins. To write or to paint its full description would 



be as impossible as 

 to tell the full tale 

 of the pathos, the 

 agony, the heroism, 

 the martyrdom of 

 the longest gallery 

 of the catacombs 

 of old Rome. "The 

 Elder Cave," so 

 called from a great 

 and beautiful elder- 



THE WELLINGTON CAVES. 



tree overshadowing its well-like 

 mouth, lies farthest north of all 

 the Caves. Its interior is a terrible 

 chaos of tumbled rocks and narrow 



tortuous passages, with only a few occasional patches of rare and delicate" beauty. In 

 its farthest and latest discovered chamber are some coral formations, springing branch- 

 like from floor and walls. If found alone they would well repay a visit, but at Jenolan 

 they are fairly outshone by the superior beauties immediately around. Last to be seen 

 is " The Devil's Coach-house," another stupendous cavern cut beneath the limestone bar 

 by the rush and ripple of the water of the Mackewan Creek. It is two hundred and 

 seventy-five feet from roof to floor, five hundred feet from northern to southern entrance, 

 four hundred feet in extreme breadth. A pear-shaped opening high in the roof admits 

 daylight enough to shew marvels and mysteries on the walls and the pendants on the 



