The Gorge Series.
“As stated above, the exit of Cougar creek from Mill bridge takes place at the bottom of a narrow crack, or gorge, running at right angles to the general direction of the stream. The Gorge is 300 feet in length, about 50 feet wide, and is spanned by two natural rock bridges. The sides are composed of badly shattered limestone. On emerging from its subterranean course beneath Mill bridge, the creek flows through the Gorge 80 feet below the floor of the valley. At the lower or north end is the opening that leads to the largest and most interesting of the series of passageways forming the Nakimu Caves. The Gorge forms a very striking feature of the external scenery, and several places are accessible from which views may be had into its depths that are wild and impressive in the extreme. The opening is a dome-shaped break in the wall forming the north end. Into this the stream tumbles with wild fury over a confusion of huge fragments of rock piled up in the passageway. It creates leaps and falls and a dissemination of spray that makes the opening to the outer world, as seen from below, appear through a luminous mist. The aperture is some thirty feet wide and about the same height.
View from Road—Mt. Avalanche, Eagle Peak, Mt. Sir Donald.
“Proceeding downwards, at the foot of the falls, the channel resumes its normal direction of a little south of east. It is necessary here to cross the stream, which swings northward into lower depths, and from now on the passageways are quite free from wet, though somewhat damp from the moistness of the Atmosphere. At the turn of the Creek’s direction you enter a chamber 150 feet long, 25 feet wide and from 10 feet high at the upper end to 30 feet at the lower end. This chamber is dimly illuminated by the daylight from outside. It is in a bad state of ruin, and the floor is heaped with debris thrown from the ceiling and sides. The roof is composed of one immense slab of rock sloping with the dip of the strata. The creek has broken through the northeast wall nearly in the middle of the chamber and disappears into the blackness with a dull reverberating roar. Fifty feet beyond the creek, the passage turns north again and it is necessary to descend a rock face of some 12 feet. On it are natural notches or footholds that would seem as though they had been cut with a cold-chisel for the special purpose; for persons unaccustomed to climbing, it is well to use a rope to steady the descent at this spot. The creek is now heard far down, welling through some rock-cut with a dull, intermittent pounding, resembling the blows of an immense sledge-hammer. Forty feet to the right, through a low roofed passage about 2 feet high, you creep into the ‘Dropping Cave.’ It is about 30 by 40 feet and 6 to 10 feet high, and so named from the fact that water drops from the roof in all directions. The floor is composed of broken rock fragments, and the walls and ceilings of dark blue limestone marked in places by irregular streaks of white crystalline calcite. At the eastern end, a very narrow passage between fallen masses of rock, affording barely room to squeeze through, leads to ‘The Witches Ball-room.’ It is 1½ to 2 feet wide, 3 to 4 feet high and some 20 feet in length.
“The Ball-room is roughly triangular in shape with sides of about 60 feet, and an estimated height of 50 feet. The largest portion of the space is occupied by an enormous rock that has fallen from the roof. This rock has a generally level surface, and is just the spot where a group of witch-hags might be expected to caper round the ghastly fumes of some hellish cauldron at a Sabbath meeting; hence the name, in sympathy with the ill-omened and weird surroundings. On all sides, except that of the passage, are deep cracks partly choked up by fallen blocks but still exposing many deep and pitch-black holes leading to the unknown, where the underground stream is heard roaring dully. By one of these, at the northeast corner of the chamber, W. S. Ayres and C. H. Deutschman penetrated to ‘The Terror’ and ‘The Old Mill,’ the former 60 odd feet below the Ball-room. Their explorations in this quarter are shown on the accompanying [map], in red, and a description of them will be found in Mr. Ayres’ supplementary report. Many of the fallen blocks show crystalline calcite markings similar to those found in the Dropping Cave.
“Leaving the Ball-room the passage leads southeasterly for a distance of 125 feet to where there is a parting of the ways. The upper end is a vaulted chamber, 15 to 20 feet wide and about 20 feet high, a crack on the left, leading to the depths below, has been partly filled by fallen rock debris. The broken blocks of which the floor is composed show crystallized dark blue limestone, veined with white ribbons of calcite. For the lower portion, the passage lies between separated limestone strata from 3 to 7 feet apart; the floor, of broken boulders and slabs is very irregular. Both roof and floor are water-worn and show erosion markings. They descend until they meet 20 to 30 feet below. The subterranean stream is heard with a muffled roar on the left. On the right, three passages, met at intervals, lead to two circular funnel-like chambers, the more distant of which has been named ‘The Pit.’
“It is now necessary to return to the surface and seek ingress to the caves by means of Entrance No. 3, not far from the Gorge on the eastern side. Entrance No. 3 is close by Lookout point and is the first accessible opening seen on the journey up the valley. A descent is made some 10 or 12 feet by a rough ladder, placed by Deutschman, to a small cavern where there is just room for three persons to crouch. Off this, a very narrow slit, through which it is barely possible to squeeze, opens to a narrow chute. Down this chute, by means of a rope placed around the body, a descent can be made some 20 feet, to the brink of space. From the final ledge a stone will drop a long way before it strikes. The total distance from the opening to the brink of the Pit is 60 feet.
“When surveying the Gorge series, the writer discovered a very peculiar passage, shown on the [map] as the ‘Marbleway.’ It was of a perfectly eroded structure, composed of a number of small connected potholes in a dark bluish-grey limestone, shot in every direction by ribbon streaks of white crystalline calcite. The walls were dripping with moisture and rendered the limestone dead black and the veins of calcite vivid white, the whole resembling a rich glistening marble. This passage was followed to the larger one shown on the [map], and that in turn to the circular chamber named ‘The Pit.’ It seemed probable that this was the spot where stones, dropped from the ledge attained by Entrance No. 3, first struck, so Deutschman was sent to reconnoitre and, not long afterwards, his face could be seen near the extreme apex of the roof peering down through the dim halo of his tallow dip. A stone tied to a cord and subsequently measured showed the drop to the floor of the Pit to be 120 feet.
“The chamber is about 20 feet in diameter and rises like a gigantic funnel to something over the height named. The walls are similar to those of the Marbleway, and some of the effects are very peculiar, reminding the beholder of forked lightning on a dead black background. At the bottom of the Pit was seen a very queer slab of rock, shaped almost perfectly like a monumental tombstone, and having directly in its centre, as though carved by hand, a cross (+). The descent from the floor of the Pit to the main passage, although slightly precipitous in one or two places, is quite easy, the distance being 120 and 130 feet by the main way and Marbleway, respectively. The walls of the Pit funnel are water-worn and, at one time, a stream flowed into it by Entrance No. 3, doubtless being the cause of the formation of the chamber. The stream, which now only carries off the surplus flow from the melting snows, has found another subterranean opening and joins Cougar creek in its underground way, somewhere beyond the Ball-room.