THE LUCINDA CAVE.
After travelling a few yards south from the grottoes the visitor arrives
at the Lucinda Cave. The hall is from 5 to 15 feet wide and from 6 to 25
feet high. The approach to the cave is through limestone rocks. The path
has a gentle slope, and in some places the walls are besprinkled with a
white substance like wool. Near the centre of the passage is a hole in
the roof partly lined with formation which sparkles like a starlit sky.
A little farther on is a descent of four steps through a passage, the
walls of which glitter with great brilliancy.
About 25 yards from the Lucinda Cave, south-south-west, is a magnificent
spectacle. The roof is densely crowded with stalactites of every type of
beauty. On each side are crevices of dazzling splendour, and on the
floors of which brilliants have been showered like hail. The largest
remain in the centre, and the corners and other remote places are heaped
with diamond drift. In one place in the lower cave is a bank made of
formation washed from the hall above, thickening to the base at an angle
of about 40 deg., and studded with cave gems. Between the jewelled floors
and the superincumbent rocks are stalagmites of pure white calcareous
alabaster. At the end of this passage are three steps, which it is
necessary to ascend in order to reach the Lucinda Chamber, which was
discovered on the 7th February, 1881, and is named after the wife of the
curator of the caves.
The Lucinda Cave is from 10 to 25 feet high, from 50 to 70 feet wide,
and about 90 feet long. Its entrance junctions with the steps to Katie's
Bower. To reach the Lucinda Cave from the junction, the visitor passes
over a level floor, like cement, about 12 feet in length. This cave is
remarkable for its scenic grandeur. The spectator stands in mute
admiration, and gazes upon the magnificent sight like one who is
spellbound. The beauty is Brobdignagian in its proportions. The figures
are all colossal. There are immense stalactites and stalagmites of every
hue. An enormous mass of formation droops from the ceiling to the summit
of a stalagmitic mound upon which it rests. It is like a series of
suddenly congealed waterfalls, and the groundwork below is gracefully
rippled on the outer surface, and fringed with stalactites. The mound
previously mentioned rests upon another of larger size, of equally
graceful contour, and besprent with brilliants which sparkle like
immense diamonds. To the right is a cascade of formation which has
trickled and solidified from rock to rock and from ledge to ledge in
graceful curves from the roof to the floor.
Those who have seen water arrested by congelation on an extensive weir,
and rendered opaque by hoar, can form a tolerably correct idea of the
kind of beauty here represented in stone. To the left of the frozen
waterfall is a bower of sparkling substances, and at its extremity is a
recess, from the farthest visible point of which can be seen magnificent
clusters of stalactites, of rich and varied colouring. This bower is
more chastely beautiful than any ever possessed by Oriental potentate.
The walls on the left side are richly draped with sheets of formation of
uniform thickness, hanging from the roof like shawls or scarves. This
mineral drapery is opaque, striped and flecked with russet and reddish
brown, and edged with white as pure as virgin snow. It is guarded by a
fence of iron rods and galvanised wire; consequently it is impossible to
make a close and minute examination of its interior, but the general
effect is fascinating. In one of the recesses is a terraced rock covered
with reddish formation, like a cascade, which certainly is not less
beautiful than were the Pink Terraces of Rotomahana. A little beyond the
cascade the same kind of formation ornaments a massive pillar, which
constitutes one of the principal features of the cave.
In the foreground is a hall which leads to an unexplored region below,
and the entrance to which is guarded by a fence to prevent accidents.
The floor is curiously formed by a series of basins, the rims of which
are shaped into every variety of curve and indentation, running in and
out like frilling, not with regular curved lines like escallops, but
representing in miniature the waterlines of a quiet harbour with large
bays and pretty inlets and creeks and reaches, without a single straight
line. The edges of these basins are about two inches in height, covered
on the outside by sparkling limestone, like delicate coral, thickening
towards the floor. Inside the formation is still more beautiful, with
coralline matter of the same general character swelling out to the most
graceful concavity. There is perfection in every segment, and in every
tiny cell lurks tremulous light.