THE VESTRY, THE JEWEL CASKET, THE BRIDAL VEIL, AND THE FLOWERING
COLUMN.
About 25 yards north of Nellie's Grotto is "The Vestry," a cavern about
12 feet high, 8 feet wide, and 20 feet in length. It is called The
Vestry, because of its propinquity to some very fine cathedral-like
architecture, and not because any minister requires it to robe himself
in, or because it is used for the meetings of any parochial assembly.
This Vestry runs east and west, and there is here a large area of
unexplored caves. Indeed, it may be said that there are in almost every
part of the mountain openings which indicate the possibility of the
existence of new and lovely caverns. It is also probable that in process
of time it will be found that all the principal chambers are connected
by passages which by a little enlargement may make intercavernous
communication complete between all the best known caves. That this is
likely may be gathered from an incident which occurred a few months ago.
There were then at the Cave House four black cats, slightly marked with
white. On being petted, the playful animals would not only purr their
thanks, but also follow like dogs. One day the most venturesome of them
went with a party into the Lucas Cave, and travelled with them a
considerable distance before it was missed, and then it was thought that
it had returned to the daylight. In the evening, however, it was not in
its accustomed place on the hearthrug, and about the middle of the
following day it was discovered in the Imperial Cave on the other side
of the Grand Arch! The attention of the party was attracted by the
doleful cries of the animal, which had by that time realised the fact
that it had lost itself in a dangerous place. Some doubt might have
existed as to the identity of the cat found in the Imperial with that
lost in the Lucas Cave, had it not been that with the party that took it
in were two boys, who had carried it now and then, and permitted its
extremities once or twice to come in contact with their lighted tapers.
They were able to identify it by "the drips of sperm on its back, its
burnt whisker, and the singe on the tip of its tail!" Thus a very
interesting fact was established which but for the accidental brandings
would have been doubtful. The visitor returns to the Fairies' Bower and
the Grand Stalactites junction; and about 20 yards north-west from the
junction he arrives at the Crystal Palace, which is fenced in by
wire-netting in order to protect its marvellous grandeur from that
class of sightseers who appear to be unable to look at anything except
they can place their unwashed paws upon it--in which case impressions
are mutual.
There are three distinct types of beauty in this Palace--the simple, the
compound, and the elaborately complex. The simple forms are extremely
massive. To call them "pretty" would be to convey an entirely erroneous
idea of their quality. The stalagmitic features are immense. One of them
is a gigantic pillar, built up in sections from an enormous basement on
a rocky mound, over which it has flowed like milk-white lava. About a
foot or so above the crest of the rock it is several feet thick, and at
one time its upper surface formed a disc or table. On this flat top was
gradually formed another white mass of somewhat smaller proportions,
tapering towards the top, or second platform, from which rises another
stalagmitic section, expanding from the base, and this process is
repeated to the very summit, so that the beautiful white pillar has a
serrated appearance. For unsullied whiteness and peculiarity of
structure it will bear favourable comparison with the most remarkable
pillars in the cave. Near to it is another pyramidal-shaped mass of even
greater bulk, which tapers as it rises towards the stalactitic
formation, and harmonises with it in grandeur.
From the right hand side of the base another and smaller stalagmite
rears its head, and immediately above it, and to the right of it, are
masses of formation hanging like stalactites of various lengths, and
bound together in solid but graceful combination. Farther still to the
right is an immense stalactite, shaped like the body of a kingfish minus
its tail. The floor of this part of the Palace is also very attractive,
by reason of its graceful curves and undulations, and miniature rippled
terraces. The more complex part of the Palace to the left begins with a
magnificent piece of shawl formation, from the lower end of which
depends a splendid stalactite. The shawl is draped at an angle of about
22-1/2 degrees, and in a line with its principal portion the wall is
hung with marvellous stalactites, one of which is of great length, and
clear as crystal. Then there is a cavernous place, from the shades of
which emerge rounded masses of white formation, fringed with myriads of
stalactites. From behind these the same kind of ornamentation is
repeated again and again until a ledge of rocks is reached, which slopes
down to a marvellously beautiful stalagmite several feet high, and which
rises from the floor immediately underneath the stalactite at the end of
the shawl before mentioned.
The general impression left by this part of the Palace is that its
grandeur is different from that which distinguishes other portions of
the caves, but it would be as difficult to say in what the peculiarity
consists as it would be to describe the general appearance presented by
different turns of a kaleidoscope. The most intricate part of the Palace
is distinctive enough to leave a separate memory. The wall is covered
with masses of brilliantly white formation, with stalactites all about
them, some short, some long, some tapering like icicles, some straight
like pipe-stems; most of them pellucid, and some like iridescent glass.
Some of the "shawls" are delicately tinted, and present a charming
appearance. There are deep brown and delicate fawn-coloured banks, which
seem as though they were covered with a stony network. Little caves at
the sides are partly filled with drifts of glistening snow. Some of the
ledges are covered with white stucco, with delicate fringes. Many of the
stalactites are charged with water, and the drops coquette with the
light and rival the glitter on the walls. There are stately and elegant
shafts of alabaster from floor to ceiling, coloured stalactites and
stalagmites nearly meeting. At every glance the eye is pleased with new
and curious forms and rich combinations of colour. Masses of the
formation are fringed with contorted threads and pipes, and on the
foreground are some curiously-shaped masses like snow, with delicate
frost work and projections like frosted hairs all over their surface.
These are for the most part opaque, but the predominant features are
crystal.
The distance from the Crystal Palace to the Jewel Casket is about 15
yards north-west, through a hall about 25 feet high and about 15 feet
wide. The Casket itself is a horizontal fissure in the rocks, about 8
feet by 12, filled with brilliants of various hues. Its splendour is
enchanting. Overhanging stalactites guard the Casket, and form as it
were bars of alabaster, opal and crystal, and through the spaces may be
seen many different varieties of crystallization. The floor is carpeted
with jewels, set off with sparkling masses like frozen snow. Some of the
gems are white like diamonds, some coloured like cairngorms, and other
varieties of rock crystal of even more delicate tints, and numbers of
them are clear and translucent. Some of the ornamentation is of a rich
brown. The impression produced is that nothing could possibly be more
brilliant and entrancing than this rich casket; and yet, remembering how
many times previously he has come to the same conclusion and
subsequently found he had miscalculated the magnificence still in
reserve, the visitor hesitates to accept the Jewel Casket as the _ne
plus ultra_ of cave magnificence. Then there is the Bridal Veil, about
10 feet by 2 feet--a wonderful piece of delicate tracery imitating fine
lace--not _ecru_, but white as the fairest emblem of a blameless life.
Here are numerous terraces in deep brown and fawn colour covered with
spangles which glitter like broken-up moonbeams on the wavelets of a
summer sea or the phosphorescence which, in the wake of a ship, mocks
the stars. The Flowering Column comes next--a huge mass of formation 25
feet high, branching off into all sorts of shapes graceful and
grotesque. It is about eight feet wide in the centre, of a rich brown
colour shading off to a brighter and lighter hue. This pillar is covered
with remarkable little figures like flowers natural and fanciful, and
near to it is a series of imitation cascades in regular sequence which
simulate so much natural force that they might be taken as an
illustration in lime of "how the waters come down at Lodore." These
cataracts or waterfalls are now for the most part dry; but at one time
the supply of liquid or semi-liquid limestone, of which they are formed,
must have been very abundant.