Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-03-22

land in direct line, though it is about
twenty miles further by rail and road,
The caves are about ten miles from Otoro-
hanga railway station. The country
around is undulating. 4 quarter of
mile before the caves are reached the
Waitomo, of about 20 feet in width. is
seen emerging from the side of a hill.
under which it has meandered through
limestone caverns of various sizes for
about twenty chains. A light canoe can
caves 20 within a few feet of its egress,
where further progress is barred by the
roof coming down to the water
At the entrance to the cavern the stream
is eight feet deep. The natives have never
had the courage to enter. The entrance
to the cave thirty feet wide and twenty
feet high, is in the face of a cliff. 1t is
beautifully arched, with numerous moss
and lichen-covered stalactites. In 8 canoe
the visitor IS taken in, ninety feet from the
entrance, and landed on a silt-covered
beach. By the aid of candles-for all is
now dark-he finds himself among ponder
Gus stalacities, three to six feet thick,
reaching from the roof, twenty feet high,
to within one foot of the ground Every
where, all over the extensive and iutri-
cate caverns, are seen stalacitites and
stalagmites of immense size in vast num-
bers, with marvellous beauty of form and
color At one place the dark vault was
studded with thousands of glow worms.
giving the vault the appearance Of 4 star
sky.
Passing down the left bank of the stream
for 40 feet, over large deposit left by
floods, the party crossed it by means of
foot bridge. From the entrance to the
bridge the cavern averages fifty feet broad
and from twenty to thirty feet high. After
crossing the bridge a sharp turn to the
right is made up steep incline for dis
lance Of seventy feet to the foot OF q TO-
foot ladder. which leads to narrow pas
sage four feet wide and fifteen feet high,
the entrance to the Grand Cavern
Here is the bottom of the wei" a narrow
shaft running up to another series of caves
over the lower ones, where II Is again met
with in the gallery above. The well Is
four feet across, perfectly true, as if made
by human hands, and its sides beautifully
marked with horizontal streaks, formed of
Illuminated limestone. In the Grand Cav
ern is an immense mound Of material eyi-
IDENTIFY fallen from the roof.
Beyond the Grand Cavern the roof rises
and forms two domes, one 90 feet high.
High up, 10 feet, is the entrance to
another cavern. Beyond the dome is a
sudden fail, the roof lowering so much
that the visitor has to stoop. The length
of the Grand Cavern. at the end of which
the stream is again met with, is $50 feet.
1t varies in width from 16 to 40 feet, and
from "a to 80 feet in height. Up to this
point the color is dull brown and a light
yellow; but in the upper galleries, 80 feet
above, there are alabaster and Parian-
marble-lifie scenes Of unsurpassed lowell
ness. Twenty feet above the Grand
Gallery is the Organ Gallery" so called
from the appearance OF the great stalagmi-
tic mass $50 feet from its entrance, rising
tier upon tier like the front of an organ
with marble pipes.
From the Grand Gallery the Main Gal
iery above is reached by a 25fodt ladder,
and so feet along it the 'well" is reached.
Here it is y feet in diameter, with smooth
sides of hard limestone, and the sound of
moving water below This is Is feet above
where it was first seen. Fifty feet along
from the upper well is fairy grotto,n
and through an archway 80 feet in length
the Banquet Chamber is reached, where
the surveyor and his friends found hot
dinner had been provided by the natives
who own the caves. At the end of this
chamber is the White Terrace, stalag-
mite mass rising in a series of terraces
From this the upper entrance TO the caves
is reached, high in a wooded cliff, 60 feet
| above and directly over the lower entrance
Mr.. HUMPHREYS describes in glowing terms
other galleries and caves, but this may
suffice TO show that, Notwithstanding the
destruction of the Rotomahana Terraces
New Zealand has still plenty of wonders.
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