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 versa_, 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.
[Illustration: THE NORTHERN ENTRANCE TO THE DEVIL'S COACH HOUSE.]
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
of 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."
The cottage at the caves is not particularly "genteel" in appearance.
The coach-house is large enough to hold almost as many horses as were
kept by Solomon, and as many chariots as were possessed by Pharaoh, and
at one end it is "double;" but there was no thought of Pharaoh, or
Solomon, or Coleridge, or Southey when it was named.
It was not because this huge place was considered big enough to be the
Devil's Coach House that it was called after the Devil, nor because it
was thought to be a suitable place for Satan to "coach" his disciples
in; nor had the person who named it any intention of paying a compliment
to poetic genius. It was called the Devil's Coach House for reasons
similar to those which created the nomenclature of the numerous Devil's
Pinches and Devil's Peaks, Devil's Mills and Devil's Punchbowls, in
various parts of the world. Captain Cook more than a century ago gave
the name of the Devil's Basin to a harbour in Christmas Sound, on the
south side of Tierra del Fuego, because of its gloomy appearance--it
being surrounded by "savage rocks," which deprive it of the rays of the
sun. For similar reasons, perhaps, the name of the Devil's Coach House
was given to this interesting portion of the Jenolan Caves, which are
surrounded by mountains and "savage rocks," and from which the rays of
the sun are excluded, except during a few hours per day. In winter the
sunshine does not glint on to the roof of the cave house till about 10,
and at about 2 in the afternoon the valley is wrapped in shade.
It is 45 or 46 years since James Whalan came suddenly upon the mouth of
this cave, and it so impressed him with its rugged grandeur and
weirdness that when he returned home he reported that he had been to the
end of the world, and had got into the Devil's Coach House. So by that
term it is still called, although it has been since named the Easter
Cave, because of a visit by some distinguished member of the Government
service during Easter, which in New South Wales is now as favourite a
holiday time as it was when kept as a festival in honour of the Goddess
of Light and Spring. For a short period in the afternoon one end of the
cave is flooded with the warm beams of the sun. Then it is at its best,
and, as the enamoured hand of fancy gleans "the treasured pictures of a
thousand scenes," so, after the bright rays have disappeared, and the
cave is seen in the shade or by "the pale moonlight," its beauties
change from hour to hour, like shadows on the mountains or the cloud
glories of an autumn sunset.