THE DEVIL'S COACH HOUSE.
[CHAPTER IV.]
THE DEVIL'S COACH HOUSE.
The road from the Grand Arch to the Devil's Coach House is devious and uneven, with occasional fissures in the ground indicating the entrance to new subterranean marvels. To the right is the mouth of a cave yet unnamed and unexplored. A little farther on, high up in the rocky wall which connects the two converging mountains of limestone, is the Carlotta Arch, which resembles a Gothic window in the grand ruins of some venerable monastic pile, fretted and scarred by centuries of decay. Almost immediately after passing the line of the Carlotta Arch, the visitor arrives at the Devil's Coach House, which runs nearly north and south. It is an immense cave, whose proportions are better gauged than those of the Grand Arch, because the light flows in, not only from the ends, but also from the roof. At a height of some 200 feet, it has a large orifice in the dome, fringed with stately trees, the fore-shortening of which from their base upwards is very peculiar as seen from the bottom of the cave. On the floor are strewn about rocks of black and grey marble, smoothed and rounded by attrition, and weighing from a few pounds to many hundredweight. In flood-time the storm-waters dash these rocks against each other with tremendous force, and the roaring of the torrent resounds like thunder through the cave. In such wild seasons blocks of stone a ton weight or more are moved a considerable distance. The walls are partly composed of black marble with white veins, and some of the boulders on the floor contain marks of fossil shells.
The most magnificent view of the Devil's Coach House is from the interior of the cave near the northern entrance, from which the rise of the arch appears to be upwards of 200 feet. Its roof is fringed with stalactites, and the outlook is into a wildly romantic gully. Stalactites are suspended from the sides of the entrance, and in several places there are stalagmites covered with projections like petrified sponge, while near to them are formations resembling masses of shells commonly found on rocks by the seaside. Some of these combinations might be examined for hours, and yet leave new and interesting features to be discovered. Small pellucid drops glisten at the ends of the stalactites, illustrating the process of their formation. The large stalactites on the roof and small stalagmites on ledges near the floor of the cave, and vice versâ, afford a practical illustration of the theory that where water flows most freely the stalagmites are largest, and where it flows most reluctantly the stalactite formation is the most magnificent.
From an inspection of these two kinds of cave ornamentation it is seen that, whereas the former are porous and free from central tubes, sometimes running in a straight line and sometimes obliquely, the latter are solid, being formed by lamination and not by accretions of matter conveyed through small interior ducts to external points. This cave may appropriately be called the Marble Hall. Portions of the walls are graced with a "formation" from the limestone rocks above, the stucco having flowed in shapes both grotesque and arabesque. Some of the interstices are filled with stalactites and stalagmites of various colours and proportions. Many stalactites on the roof of the mouth of the cave are said to be from 12 to 15 feet long. All around are entrances to numerous interior spaces adorned with stalactites of the most delicate hues. Some are tinged with various gradations of blue; others are of salmon colour, and delicate fawn. Others again are sober grey, and white shaded with neutral tint. The rocks are decorated with little patches of moss, from rich old gold to living green. The harmony of colour is marvellous, and the combined effect unique. Nature herself has so painted and ornamented the cave as to give a lesson to professors of decorative art. The vision of rocky beauty grows upon the imagination the observer until at last it seems like a new revelation of the enchanting effects which can be produced by natural combination.
To the artist this cave presents attractions of a kind not to be found in any other of the wonderful caves of Jenolan, although commonly it receives small attention from visitors, who recognise its grand proportions, but are impatient to witness the more elaborate and brilliant features in the hidden recesses of the mountain.
Why this spacious cavern should be called the Devil's Coach House (except on the lucus a non lucendo principle) few would divine. The name of his Satanic majesty is often associated with horses and horse-racing, but not generally with coaches and coach-houses. In this connection, however, it is necessary to observe class distinctions. The cavern is not sufficiently monstrous to be used by Milton's personification of the rebellious archangel, nor sufficiently hideous for Burns's "Auld Clootie," with hoofs and horns. Coleridge's devil or Southey's devil (as illustrated in "The Devil's Thoughts" of the one, and "The Devil's Walk" of the other) was neither too grand nor too ignoble to notice coach-houses. But then, he was a sarcastic fiend, for when he "saw an Apothecary on a white horse ride by on his vocations," he "thought of his old friend Death in the Revelations"—which was rather severe on the pharmacist. But leaving the man of drugs—
"He saw a cottage with a double coach-house,
A cottage of gentility;
And the Devil did grin, for his darling sin
Is pride that apes humility."