THE BONE CAVES.
The Bone Caves are intensely interesting, and a considerable amount of
attention has been paid to them by scientists. In 1867, Professor Owen,
when writing to the Colonial Secretary, said that the natural remains
obtained from the limestone caves of Wellington Valley in 1832,
"revealed the important and suggestive fact that the marsupial type of
structure prevailed in the ancient and extinct as well as in the
existing quadrupeds of Australia." Seventeen years ago there was an
expedition to the Wellington Valley Bone Caves. Parliament voted L200
for the purpose, and an investigation was made by Mr. Gerard Krefft, who
at that time was curator of the Australian Museum, and Dr. Thompson.
They obtained many valuable and rare specimens, some of which were said
to be quite new to science, consisting of the remains of mammals, birds,
and reptiles. The largest bones and teeth discovered were of a size
equal to those of a full-grown elephant. They were remains of
diprotodons and nototheriums, gigantic marsupials now extinct.
The Wellington Valley Caves were discovered by Sir Thomas Mitchell more
than 50 years ago. From them no fewer than 2,100 specimens of fossil
remains were presented to the British Museum. When the result of the
exploration was forwarded to Professor Owen, he said that the conclusion
was very much what might have been naturally looked for, and that the
only disappointment he felt was the absence of human remains and works.
Ten years ago an attempt was made to obtain the co-operation of the
neighbouring colonies in the work of thoroughly exploring the caves of
the western and southern districts and Australian rivers. The
proposition originated with the Agent-General for New South Wales,
Professor Owen, and Sir George Macleay, but the adjacent colonies did
not see their way to participate, whereupon our Cabinet decided to do
the work without extraneous aid, and L600 was voted by Parliament for
the service of 1882. At an earlier stage Professor Liversidge had
written to the Colonial Secretary, transmitting the following extract
from a letter he had received from Professor Boyd Dawkins, M.A.,
F.R.S., of Owens College, Manchester:--"Would the Government of New
South Wales undertake the systematic exploration of the wonderful caves
which are in the colony, and which certainly ought to be explored? Not
only is there a certainty of adding to the great marsupials which have
been obtained, but there is a great chance of finding proof that man was
living at the same time as the extinct animals, as he has already been
found in Europe and Asia. I should expect to find a very low form of the
aborigine. Such an inquiry would be of a very great interest to us here
in England, who are digging at the caves all over Europe, and the
duplication which would be obtained would enable the trustees of the
Australian Museum to increase their collections largely by exchanges."
The minutes of the meetings of the trustees of the Australian Museum
show that in 1881 a committee, consisting of Dr. Cox, Mr. Wilkinson, and
Professor Liversidge, was appointed for the management of the
exploration of caves and rivers, and it was decided that the following
caves should, if possible, be examined in the order as
written:--Wellington Caves, Cowra, or Belubula Caves, Abercrombie,
Wollombi, Fish River (now Jenolan), Wombeyan, Wallerawang, Cargo,
Yarrangobilly, Murrumbidgee, Kempsey. The Goodradigbee caves were also
included, and from them was taken a great quantity of bones of small
animals, with a number of jaw, thigh, hip, and shin bones of some
animals of the kangaroo family. The smaller bones were those of mice,
bats, birds, and marsupials. In the Wellington breccia cave a shaft was
sunk, and on the 20th September, 1881, Mr. E. P. Ramsay, curator of the
Museum, reported, among other things, the following:--"A great number of
interesting bones have already been obtained from this shaft, but the
mass of 35 feet of bone breccia which we passed through shows that we
have here a large field for exploration. From this shaft we have
obtained bones of the following animals, besides a great number of small
bones yet undetermined--Diprotodon, macropus, palorchestes, sthenurus,
procoptodon, protemnodon, halmaturus, thylacinus, bettongia,
sarcophilus, phascolomys, dasyurus, phalangista, pteropus (?), bats,
rodents (mus), a few lizards' bones, and a few vertebrae of lizards and
snakes."
Other caves also were explored, but it was found that the bones obtained
from them were of recent origin. It is a question whether it would not
be desirable to make still further investigations. The osseous
breccia--where it exists--appears to be similar in all the caves. There
are rifts and pits and chambers where animals have retired to die, and
where from time to time their bones have been formed into cement with
the liquefied rock, which in process of time has again hardened and
become a solid compound of bone and stone.
In the southern room on the first floor of the Sydney Museum is a large
collection of bones from the Wellington and other caves. These remains
have been collected during the last four or five years under the
direction of Mr. Ramsay, the curator. They are chiefly the bones of
marsupials. There are not among them any fossil remains which indicate
the presence of man in Australia at any very remote period. Some of the
principal bones are those of extinct marsupials, and are important from
a scientific point of view. They include bones of the following animals
(species extant) found in the Wellington caves:--The thylacinus
(Tasmanian tiger), sarcophilus (Tasmanian devil), mastacomys (a rodent),
hapalotis albipes, and mus lineatus (New South Wales). Other important
fossil remains in the Museum are those of the thylacoleo (two species),
diprotodon, procoptodon, protemnodon, palorchestes, macropus titan,
nototherium, phascolomys. There are not in the Sydney Museum any bones
from the Jenolan Caves--which, however, contain many interesting remains
of the animal world,--because the search for them would involve the
destruction of attractive features. For these reasons attention was
given to the Wellington Caves, whose beauties were not likely to receive
further disfiguration than they have already suffered.
From the Wallaby Bone Cave the visitor returns to the Fossil Bone Cave,
and ascends a wire ladder which is about to be replaced by an iron
staircase. As he mounts this wire-rope ladder, which is 76 feet long and
not "stayed," he feels the necessity for some better means of
communication. From the top to the Cathedral is about 25 yards
south-east. A large portion of the cave north-west from this point has
not been explored. There are five or six different branches, one of
which runs out to daylight at a small aperture (14 inches by 18 inches)
over the rise of the water below the Grand Archway and the Devil's Coach
House. The distance from here through the Cathedral to the entrance gate
is about 70 yards, up two flights of steps. There is a gradual ascent to
the steps, and the final flight of 41 brings the excursionist to the
gate and to the sunshine. He will be glad to rest awhile before entering
the Imperial Cave, which is the grandest of them all.