VI 
THE CHILLAGOE CAVES 
63 
magnificent confusion that we had some difficulty in 
making our way over them and between the tangled 
tree roots ; then, higher up, the broken path descends 
along jagged cliffs and deep chasms ; black shadows 
fell from the closing walls of rock above and wild plants 
trailed and almost blocked the roadway, and now the 
black yawning entrance to these caves lay at our feet, 
and we went crawling on hands and knees into the 
opening in delightful uncertainty as to the depth 
below. We went from one lofty cavern into another, 
sometimes burrowing, sometimes wriggling full-length 
through narrow crevices, for, as yet, nothing has been 
done in the way of opening them up, and occasionally 
we had to drop from rock to rock, where a false step 
would have sent us many feet into the darkness below. 
Taking them individually, they struck me as larger, 
grander, and more imposing than any of the Jenolan 
caves in New South Wales, but the stalactites and 
stalagmites here are not so varied, nor are they to be 
compared in beauty with those in the Jenolan caves. 
It is not yet known for how far the caves extend. 
I believe about thirty miles have been explored, and 
through the Cimmerian darkness of these Mr. A. 
conducted me for hours, until I could believe myself 
the denizen of another world, as weird and wonderful 
as the imaginings of Dante. When Mr. A. burnt red 
lights, as he did now and again, the glow, catching 
glistening masses of snow-white crystal, turned them 
into walls of sparkling diamonds. These lined the 
chambers, the floors of which were strewn with round 
white or gray pebbles, lime-incrusted in places and inter- 
spersed with the skeletons of kangaroos and rats, and 
with old land shells, and fossils of shells, as well as with 
leaves and wood. Here and there, across an entrance, 
transparent curtains had been formed by the drip of 
