The Jenolan Caves - Samuel Cook - Bog

The Jenolan Caves contain some of the most remarkable and beautiful
objects in Australian wonderland. They are formed in a limestone "dyke,"
surrounded by magnificent scenery, and hide in their dark recesses natural
phenomena of rare interest to the geologist, as well as of pleasurable
contemplation by non-scientific visitors; while in and about them the
moralist may find
"¿¿ tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,Sermons in stones, and
good in everything."
To see these caves once is to create a lifelong memory. The pink and the
white terraces of New Zealand, which before the recent eruptions attracted
so many tourists, did not excel in splendour the caves at Jenolan. But it is
common for people to go abroad to admire less interesting things than are
to be found within easy distance of their starting point, and which, if they
were a thousand miles away, would probably be regarded as worthy of a
special pilgrimage. There are persons living two or three leagues from the
caves who have never seen them, and who, if they embraced the
opportunity for inspection, would possibly regard them with the kind of
wonder with which they would gaze upon the transformation scene at a
pantomime. And yet the most frequent entry in the visitors' book is that the
caves are "grand beyond expectation," and in some of their principal
features "indescribably beautiful."