THE VESTRY, THE JEWEL CASKET, THE BRIDAL VEIL, AND THE FLOWERING COLUMN.
About 25 yards north of Nellie's Grotto is "The Vestry," a cavern about 12 feet high, 8 feet wide, and 20 feet in length. It is called The Vestry, because of its propinquity to some very fine cathedral-like architecture, and not because any minister requires it to robe himself in, or because it is used for the meetings of any parochial assembly. This Vestry runs east and west, and there is here a large area of unexplored caves. Indeed, it may be said that there are in almost every part of the mountain openings which indicate the possibility of the existence of new and lovely caverns. It is also probable that in process of time it will be found that all the principal chambers are connected by passages which by a little enlargement may make intercavernous communication complete between all the best known caves. That this is likely may be gathered from an incident which occurred a few months ago. There were then at the Cave House four black cats, slightly marked with white. On being petted, the playful animals would not only purr their thanks, but also follow like dogs. One day the most venturesome of them went with a party into the Lucas Cave, and travelled with them a considerable distance before it was missed, and then it was thought that it had returned to the daylight. In the evening, however, it was not in its accustomed place on the hearthrug, and about the middle of the following day it was discovered in the Imperial Cave on the other side of the Grand Arch! The attention of the party was attracted by the doleful cries of the animal, which had by that time realised the fact that it had lost itself in a dangerous place. Some doubt might have existed as to the identity of the cat found in the Imperial with that lost in the Lucas Cave, had it not been that with the party that took it in were two boys, who had carried it now and then, and permitted its extremities once or twice to come in contact with their lighted tapers. They were able to identify it by "the drips of sperm on its back, its burnt whisker, and the singe on the tip of its tail!" Thus a very interesting fact was established which but for the accidental brandings would have been doubtful. The visitor returns to the Fairies' Bower and the Grand Stalactites junction; and about 20 yards north-west from the junction he arrives at the Crystal Palace, which is fenced in by wire-netting in order to protect its marvellous grandeur from that class of sightseers who appear to be unable to look at anything except they can place their unwashed paws upon it—in which case impressions are mutual.
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 22½ 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.
The general impression left by this part of the Palace is that its grandeur is different from that which distinguishes other portions of the caves, but it would be as difficult to say in what the peculiarity consists as it would be to describe the general appearance presented by different turns of a kaleidoscope. The most intricate part of the Palace is distinctive enough to leave a separate memory. The wall is covered with masses of brilliantly white formation, with stalactites all about them, some short, some long, some tapering like icicles, some straight like pipe-stems; most of them pellucid, and some like iridescent glass. Some of the "shawls" are delicately tinted, and present a charming appearance. There are deep brown and delicate fawn-coloured banks, which seem as though they were covered with a stony network. Little caves at the sides are partly filled with drifts of glistening snow. Some of the ledges are covered with white stucco, with delicate fringes. Many of the stalactites are charged with water, and the drops coquette with the light and rival the glitter on the walls. There are stately and elegant shafts of alabaster from floor to ceiling, coloured stalactites and stalagmites nearly meeting. At every glance the eye is pleased with new and curious forms and rich combinations of colour. Masses of the formation are fringed with contorted threads and pipes, and on the foreground are some curiously-shaped masses like snow, with delicate frost work and projections like frosted hairs all over their surface. These are for the most part opaque, but the predominant features are crystal.
The distance from the Crystal Palace to the Jewel Casket is about 15 yards north-west, through a hall about 25 feet high and about 15 feet wide. The Casket itself is a horizontal fissure in the rocks, about 8 feet by 12, filled with brilliants of various hues. Its splendour is enchanting. Overhanging stalactites guard the Casket, and form as it were bars of alabaster, opal and crystal, and through the spaces may be seen many different varieties of crystallization. The floor is carpeted with jewels, set off with sparkling masses like frozen snow. Some of the gems are white like diamonds, some coloured like cairngorms, and other varieties of rock crystal of even more delicate tints, and numbers of them are clear and translucent. Some of the ornamentation is of a rich brown. The impression produced is that nothing could possibly be more brilliant and entrancing than this rich casket; and yet, remembering how many times previously he has come to the same conclusion and subsequently found he had miscalculated the magnificence still in reserve, the visitor hesitates to accept the Jewel Casket as the ne plus ultra of cave magnificence. Then there is the Bridal Veil, about 10 feet by 2 feet—a wonderful piece of delicate tracery imitating fine lace—not écru, but white as the fairest emblem of a blameless life. Here are numerous terraces in deep brown and fawn colour covered with spangles which glitter like broken-up moonbeams on the wavelets of a summer sea or the phosphorescence which, in the wake of a ship, mocks the stars. The Flowering Column comes next—a huge mass of formation 25 feet high, branching off into all sorts of shapes graceful and grotesque. It is about eight feet wide in the centre, of a rich brown colour shading off to a brighter and lighter hue. This pillar is covered with remarkable little figures like flowers natural and fanciful, and near to it is a series of imitation cascades in regular sequence which simulate so much natural force that they might be taken as an illustration in lime of "how the waters come down at Lodore." These cataracts or waterfalls are now for the most part dry; but at one time the supply of liquid or semi-liquid limestone, of which they are formed, must have been very abundant.
