Part 4 (1/2)
A Zigzag Railway.--Wonderful Series of Caves.--Immense Sheep-Runs.--Sheep-Shearing.--Central Australia.--City Characteristics.--Fine Architectural Development.--Steam Tramways.--Labor Unions.--Colonial Federation.--The Tariff.--Loyalty to England.--Spirit of Local Rivalry.--The St. Giles of Sydney.--City Clubs.--The Laughing Jacka.s.s.--Public Parks.--Gold Mines.
There is one special excursion which should not be neglected by travellers to Sydney; namely, a visit to what are called the Fish River Caves at Tarana. No person would neglect them who could antic.i.p.ate the novel experience to be enjoyed by such a visit, which need occupy but four days' time. We had not even heard of these singular wonders of Nature's handiwork before coming hither. The short journey to the caves takes one through a delightful though wild and mountainous region, replete with grand natural scenery. The route leads through the Emu Plains and over the Blue Mountains by the Zigzag Railroad, from whose various elevations lovely far-reaching views are enjoyed of the district left behind and the gleaming Nepean River winding gracefully through it.
This range of mountains reaches a height of three thousand four hundred feet, intersected by precipitous ravines fifteen hundred feet in depth, and by gulches scarcely excelled in our own Rocky Mountains. One is reminded here most forcibly of the precipitous zigzag road at Darjeeling, in India, which ascends toward the Himalayan range, and which is nearly as remarkable as this example of Australian engineering.
We were told that this Zigzag Railroad of five miles more or less in length cost three million dollars, and saw no reason to doubt it. In working out some of the levels from the face of the precipitous and rocky sides of the mountain, laborers were suspended by ropes from holding-ground far above their heads, and very many of the cuttings were accomplished under equally trying circ.u.mstances. As a piece of daring and successful engineering there is nothing to equal it in the Southern Hemisphere.
The subterranean temples and halls of limestone which const.i.tute these remarkable Fish River Caves are of vast extent, filled with many intricate windings, galleries, and irregular pa.s.sages, in which one would inevitably be lost without an experienced and faithful guide. The many apartments are known by special names, and there are several singularly perfect archways whose exact proportions no architect could improve. These caves present some of the most beautiful stalact.i.tes we have ever seen, and in many prominent features they are considered to be unique. Whole days of examination would not exhaust their variety. One of the caves is of cathedral dimensions, having a height of five hundred feet and a length and breadth according well with its alt.i.tude. Another of the apartments is appropriately designated as the Menagerie, on account of the peculiar shapes produced by the crystal-like formations, from which the imagination can easily create various animals.
When lighted, these subterranean palaces form a gorgeous spectacle. One peculiar division is called the Bell Tower, being a small chamber in which are five or six stalact.i.tes hanging near together, and which when struck give out rich metallic tones similar to a chime of bells. For extent, variety, and beauty combined, these buried halls and chambers have no equal so far as our experience goes, though they recall the grotto of Adelsberg, near Trieste, which exhibits some similar features, and also the subterranean caverns in the environs of Matanzas, Cuba. In these Fish River Caves the fantastic shapes a.s.sumed by the limestone formations are infinite in variety, as well as weird and singular in their groupings. But perhaps they excel most particularly in their beautiful coloring, in many instances presenting great brilliancy of l.u.s.tre, which causes the individual stalact.i.tes to seem like ponderous opals.
A magnesium wire is introduced by the guide for the pleasure of the visitor, and when the caves are thus illumined the most fairy-like effect is produced. It is as if one suddenly stood within the charmed palace of Aladdin, the gauze-like fountains reflecting the light upon one another like a series of mirrors, and the whole sparkling like rubies, emeralds, and diamonds. The effect then becomes fantastic, unreal, theatrical. From some of the intricate windings the distant music of waterfalls strikes pleasantly on the ear, and crystal streams reflect the light in azure hues. When the guide extinguishes for a moment his powerful light, gloom and darkness surround the visitor, stimulating the imagination to vivid activity. These might be the caves of Erebus leading to Hades, and where is Charon to ferry us across the Styx? May not that distant sound of falling water be the voice of Lethe, that river of oblivion ”whereof whoso drinks straightway his former sense and being forgets”? Some of these natural temples have domes rivalling St. Peter's and St. Paul's. How many there are of these caves, running for miles into the mountains, no one can say, as they have never been fully explored; but every year some new grotto is discovered and added to the number already recorded.
Caves of limestone formation are produced in many parts of the world, and the simplest knowledge of chemistry coupled with a little careful observation shows us clearly how they have been created. The conditions must first be those of an underlying bed of limestone nearly horizontal in its layers, over which a forest or wooded surface has grown. The falling rain washes the decaying leaves, and in doing so borrows from them certain chemical properties, charged with which the water sinks into the limestone beds. The carbon acquired by the water combines with and dissolves the lime and other components of the rock, which then escape as gases through the interstices of the earth. Thus openings are at first formed, which are slowly increased in size by the same process during the pa.s.sing ages, until vast and curious caves are created. When underground channels have been begun, coursing streams of water a.s.sist the chemical action and wear away the rock by simple friction. With these facts in mind, the Fish River Caves cease to be miraculous formations, as some have imagined them, and are only marvels,--giving us tangible evidence of the many thousands of years which must have transpired during their creation.
In the broad s.p.a.ce of country lying between the coast and the Alpine range, of which the Blue Mountains form a part, there are many sheep-runs of large proportions, upon which are sheep in almost fabulous numbers. The land here seems especially adapted in its natural condition to the raising and sustenance of these profitable animals, though it is also susceptible of a much higher degree of improvement and cultivation.
Our observation was confined mainly to the country nearest the borders of New South Wales and Victoria. Here one man, a thrifty Scotchman from ”Auld Reekie,” with whom we became acquainted, was the owner of over one hundred and twenty thousand sheep, and several other men had more than half that number each. Forty or fifty thousand belonging to one person is not considered at all remarkable in this great South-Land of Australia. When it is remembered that each one of these animals must be sheared annually, the enormous labor involved in caring for such a stock begins to be realized.
In the clipping season, bands of men sometimes numbering forty or fifty, go from one run to another to shear the sheep, and become very expert at the business, realizing a handsome sum of money at the close of each season. Some of these men invest their money in flocks, and thus gradually become possessed of runs of their own. Several such instances were named to us. Such ”a neighbor” (any one within ten miles is called ”a neighbor”) ”began as a clipper two or three years ago, and now he owns his twenty thousand sheep.” The annual natural increase is fully seventy-five per cent per annum. Some clippers are not so careful of their means, but after the season is finished they hie away to Sydney, Melbourne, or some other populous centre, where they drink and gamble away their money much faster than they earned it.
A smart professional shearer will clip one hundred sheep in a day of ten hours. The highest price paid for such service is five dollars a day, or rather five dollars per each hundred animals sheared. These men often work over hours during the season, for which they are paid at the same rate, and are always found in board and lodging by the owner of the run by whom they are employed. Machinery to do the clipping is being introduced, though not rapidly, as only a few more animals can be sheared per day by machinery than by hand,--a process similar in its operation to that of horse-clipping. The great advantage, however, of machinery is the perfect uniformity of cut obtained,--a result which the most experienced shearer cannot insure. The operator often cuts the sheep more or less severely in the rapidity of the hand process; but this is impossible where the machine is used, though it leaves the animal with a shorter fleece all over its body, and consequently gives a yield of three or four ounces more of wool from each. To feed and properly sustain such vast numbers of sheep requires ample s.p.a.ce; but there is enough of that, and to spare.
Australia in its greatest breadth, between Shark's Bay on the west and Sandy Cape on the eastern sh.o.r.e, measures twenty-four hundred miles; and from north to south--that is, from Cape York to Cape Otway--it is probably over seventeen hundred miles in extent. A very large portion of the country, especially in the interior and northwestern sections, still remains unexplored. The occupied and improved portions of the country skirt the sea-coast on the southern and eastern sides, which are covered with cities, towns, villages, and hamlets where nine tenths of the population live. The country occupied for sheep-runs and cattle-ranches is very spa.r.s.ely inhabited. The reason for this is obvious, since the owner of a hundred thousand sheep requires between two and three hundred thousand acres to feed them properly. The relative proportion as to sheep and land, as given to us, is to allow two and a third acres to each animal. Of course there is land which would support these animals in proportion of say one sheep to the acre; but the average is as above.
Those who are engaged in agriculture have pushed their homes back inland as far as the soil and the watercourses will avail them. The latter element must be especially regarded, as the country is unfortunately liable to severe droughts. Thus district after district has been reclaimed from the wilderness and turned into fertile grazing lands.
There is no bound to this gradual progress of land cultivation; slow but sure, it will only cease when the western coast bordering on the Indian Ocean, now mostly a wilderness, shall be reached.
A sort of patriarchal simplicity has until lately governed these pioneers of agriculture. Any unmarked and unoccupied land has been freely appropriated to their use. But as a higher grade of husbandry has advanced, more stringent laws have been enforced and cheerfully acquiesced in; so that at present there is very little near the coast suitable for grazing which is not under registry with the Crown officers. Squatting is therefore no longer a happy-go-lucky venture, but that which the pioneer has he pays for,--a small sum to be sure, but it renders his claim safe from any chance infringement. The want of such well-defined rules in the earlier days led to many a bitter quarrel, which not infrequently ended in a fatal manner. Adventurous men, who always go armed, are generally quick to quarrel, and reckless in the use of weapons.
The central portion of Australia is described as being one vast extent of alluvial plains, interspersed with sandy ridges, dry lakes (or land depressions), and occasional hills. Many portions have a very rich black soil, bearing what are called nigall-trees, which yield a transparent gum in large quant.i.ties, in all respects resembling gum-arabic, being perfectly soluble in water. This gum the natives eat freely; and it is very palatable, though its nutritive qualities are quite doubtful. The natives eat this gum to allay the pangs of hunger, but it is not believed that human life could long be sustained upon it.
On some of these central plains there is a natural gra.s.s of the most nutritious quality, which grows profusely. The Europeans call it blue-gra.s.s, of which sheep and cattle are very fond. Large tracts are liable to inundation from floods during the brief rainy season. The soil consists of a rich plastic formation. Wild carrots and wild flax abound; the former are especially sought for by sheep, while the bolls of the latter are considered fattening for all stock. Sheep will patiently dig with their fore-feet to get at the carrots, and devour them eagerly, though they are very bitter to the taste. Another peculiarity of the country, as it was described to us, is the entire absence of all stones; not one is to be found except at the foot of some of the hills, which are often twenty miles apart. It is believed that this part of the territory is at a certain depth underlaid by an abundance of fresh water, which would be perfectly accessible by means of artesian wells.
If a suitable and efficient system of irrigation could be adopted it would bring into use at once an enormous territory as large as half-a-dozen of our largest Western States, which is now little better than a dry desert, where in summer the gra.s.s becomes hay dried upon the roots, but which in winter, when the rain falls, puts on an inviting aspect of rich verdure.
The great dividing mountain chain of Australia is near the coast-line in the south and east, averaging perhaps a hundred miles or more from the sea. Nearly all the gold which the land has produced has come from the valleys and hillsides of this range. The gold diggings of New South Wales have proved to be very rich in some sections; but unlike those of Queensland and Victoria,--the former six hundred miles north of Sydney, and the latter six hundred miles south of it,--the precious metal is here found mostly in alluvial deposits. A true fissure vein of gold-bearing quartz, as we were informed, has never been found in New South Wales. As a source of pecuniary and lasting income, her coal mines are far more valuable than all the rest of her mineral deposits combined.
Sydney holds high rank as a British colonial city, and deservedly so, having special reason for pride in the complete system of her charitable and educational organizations, her n.o.ble public buildings, and the general character of her leading citizens. Land in the town and its vicinity is held at prices averaging as high as in Boston or New York, and the wealth of the people is represented to be very great in the aggregate.
The City Hall, now in course of enlargement, is an admirable structure of stone, grand in its architecture and most substantially constructed.
When finished it will equal the Hotel de Ville of Paris in size, and to our taste surpa.s.s it architecturally. It is of the composite order, with bold reliefs and pillared front, its whole effect being in strong contrast to that of St. Andrew's Cathedral in George Street, which is close at hand. The latter is in pure Gothic of the pointed style, and although it is comparatively small, it will rank favorably in its decorations and internal arrangements with any of the lately-built English cathedrals. The view from the open cupola of the City Hall, at a height of about one hundred and fifty feet above the level of George Street, is unusually comprehensive, taking in not only the immediate city on all sides, but also the environs, including the several divisions of the harbor. To the westward, fifteen miles away, lies Parametta, while eastward the heaving breast of the restless Pacific Ocean dies away in the far horizon. From this eyrie one looks down upon the Cathedral, which is a very costly edifice, and was thirty-one years in building,--the funds being frequently exhausted, and money for the purpose difficult to raise. But it now stands as a fine Christian monument of choice design, thoroughly and artistically carried out.
The Post-Office is a very large stone structure surmounted by a tall square tower, rather out of proportion. This building extends over a whole square, or rather fronts upon three streets, embracing ample room for every department of the postal service, including that of the telegraph. The whole building is surrounded on the three sides by lofty pillars of stone, forming a corridor open to the streets, admirably conceived so that the attendant public are at all times under shelter.
Among the other prominent public buildings are the Treasury, the Land Office, and the Colonial Secretary's Office, each four or five stories in height, built of stone, and situated near the sh.o.r.e of the harbor.
This is the immediate neighborhood of the Circular Quay at the head of Sydney Cove. This quay has a length of over three thousand feet, and is available for the mooring of the largest steamers that navigate the ocean. Numerous steams.h.i.+ps of five thousand tons and upward lay here on the occasion of our visit.
The erection of new buildings is always an evidence of thrift and general prosperity. Much building was observed to be in progress here, mostly large stone edifices designed for business purposes, remarkable for their architectural pretension and the solidity of the mason-work.
All this activity gave us the impression of being in the midst of a prosperous, progressive people.
The contrast presented by Sunday compared with the rest of the week was remarkable, the day being one of perfect repose so far as all outward appearances went. The bar-rooms were all closed and every branch of business suspended. The Public Gardens, Public Library, and Art Gallery, however, were all open.