THE BROKEN COLUMN.
To the eastward are several interesting stalactites. One represents a black fellow's "nulla-nulla," another a lady and child, another the palm of a hand blackened by candle smoke. On the south side is a spacious platform like the stage of a theatre—the front, about 40 feet wide, is supported by two columns. The height is about 18 feet, and across the top is a curtain of formation representing drapery gracefully arranged, with a fringe of little sparkling stalactites. On each side of this is a smaller entrance similarly adorned and as exquisitely beautiful. The floor of the stage is about 15 feet deep, and the curved ceiling about 40 feet from the drop curtain to the floor. This is as it appears at a distance. On nearer approach it is perceived that the pillars are uneven, and marked with formations of various kinds. That which seemed like a stage becomes an irregular cavern, with immense rocks lying about in great disorder. When the Exhibition is illuminated by the magnesium light, some beautiful red and white stalactites are disclosed, glittering like dewdrops in the sunlight, and also some exceedingly pretty stalagmites. This chamber was called "The Exhibition" on account of the variety of its specimens. It contains stalactites and stalagmites, white and coloured—variegated shawls—sombre marble and sparkling rocks, clusters of formation, and elephantine masses of carbonate of lime in shapes which prove how much more subtle than professors of art is Nature herself. At the south end a cave slopes down, and there are boulders and débris stained with iron, as well as other indications of great soakage and percolation.
THE JEWEL CASKET.
Eastward, about 40 feet, is the "Jewel Casket." On the way to it are openings to numerous unexplored caves. Affixed to an immense block of limestone are some 30 or 40 shawl-pattern formations of various sizes, which give forth musical sounds when struck with a hard substance, and which, with a little practice, could be played upon like a mammoth harmonicon. En route from the Exhibition to the Jewel Casket, although the passage has not been so dry for twenty years, the rocks are covered with moisture, and the lime can be scraped off like soft soap. From the Exhibition there is a descent eastward of about 100 feet along the gallery, which is somewhat narrow, but the roof of which is covered with pretty stalactites. Near the entrance to the Casket is a remarkable reticulated rock. The descent is by 23 steps east, and then proceeding north about five yards the Jewel Casket is reached.
THE BROKEN COLUMN.
The Jewel Casket is at the end of a very remarkable cave. Its ceiling is marvellously beautiful. The walls and ridges on each side sparkle like gems of the first water. Some of the rocks are covered with virgin white, and some are delicately coloured. The entrance to the Casket itself is very small, being only about 15 inches by 8. Its upper portion is of glistening rich brown, and slopes in varied graceful folds down to the bed rock. When the magnesium light reveals the splendour of the interior it is seen that the Casket stretches away to a considerable distance; the floor is covered with white and amber brilliants and snowy coruscating flakes of dazzling purity. Here are clusters of cave diamonds, opals, and pearls, with delicate fawn-coloured jewels scattered about promiscuously. Rich and rare are the gems this Casket contains, and exclamations of delight are evoked when their charms burst upon the view like a vision of fairyland. Neither tongue nor pen, nor photographic art nor pencil-sketch, can ever do full justice to this natural treasury of beautiful things.
JUDGE WINDEYER'S COUCH.
Leaving the Jewel Casket, the visitor proceeds in a northward direction along a passage, from the Exhibition to "The Hall to the Bridge." There is an ascent of 13 steps west, and then the way to the Hall is under a low archway, through which it is necessary to proceed on hands and knees. Through this archway is a little cavern, something like the Jewel Casket, with a floor of diamond drift and delicate coral. At the top of the steps the Hall runs north-west. Then the way lies down a gradual slope of rough rocks to the head of 18 steps, with a wire rope on the right hand side. At the top of the steps near to the Jewel Casket and in the Hall to the Bridge is a piece of formation like an upholstered sofa, which has been named "Judge Windeyer's Couch," because it is said that the learned Judge sat on it when he visited the caves. Its surface is of a rich reddish brown, and may have suggested the celebrated woolsack which, in the days of "good Queen Bess," was introduced as the Lord Chancellor's seat in commemoration of the Act to prevent the exportation of wool which was at that time as important an element in England's prosperity as it is at present to the well-being of Australia. In the Hall beautiful formation is seen. A large rock, with shawl-pattern appendages and other ornamentation, is specially attractive. Another represents a miniature Niagara, done in stone. The features are varied by splendid stalactites, from pure white to rich brown. The formation on the wall is like frozen fountains. The bottom consists of huge rocks, angular and rugged, with immense flags of limestone. About 10 yards from the Bridge is "Touch-me-not" corner, with a grotto quite out of reach, but of the interior of which, when the light is flashed into it, a splendid view can be obtained. The stalactites are perfectly shaped and beautifully pure. Some of them are as white as snow, some are opaline, and others are tinged with mineral colours. The floor has many stalagmites and sparkling formations like a jewelled carpet, which falls from the entrance a little distance down the wall in graceful brown folds fringed with russet stalactites. Here the Hall is very spacious, being about 120 feet across, and the roof rises from 10 to 50 feet. It has on it some of the most beautiful stalactites in the caves, many of them being of unsullied white. To the left, high up on the side of the Hall, is a piece of pure lime formation like a lace shawl, the apparent delicate network of which is an object of special interest, if not of envy, to the fair sex.
