REMARKABLE LIMESTONE CAVE NEAR MASTERTON.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1182, 4 December 1883, Page 3

REMARKABLE LIMESTONE CAVE NEAR MASTERTON.

A discovery of considerable interest has been made in the heart of a dense forest, about 17 miles from Masterton, in the shape of a subterranean passage extending about 462 feet through a solid limestone ridge. The cavern performs the functions of an immense culvert, not the least peculiar feature of which is that the water, drained from an extensive area of country, disappears below the surface of the ground at the upper entrance of the cave, and re-appears above the surface again about 132 yards below the lower extremity, while the floor of the cavern, except in times of heavy rainfalls, is perfectly dry. The floor throughout averages fifteen feet in width, and the walls* abounding in crevices or fissures, taper like the internal section of a hollow cone to a height of about 25 to 30 feet. The upper portion of the underground passage for about half its length is formed of the softer limestone, and the lower portion of harder limestone. This portion of the cave presents a truly wonderful picture. Long vaults on either side reveal a weird like succession of beautiful alabaßter grottoes, fringed and draped with every description of funtastic ornaments. On every side rise massive columns covered with calcareous incrustations, and overlapping huge sheets of limestone, the result of the waters filtering through the porous rock or trickling down through the fissures, becoming charged with carbonate of lime and then evaporating. Beautifully formed stalactites hang like crystal pendants from every crag, and lustrous petrifactions, operating like reflectors, remind one of the fairy cavea in a splendid pantomime. The roof in places resembles the inside of a refrigerating chumber, from which are suspended sides and hams of carbonised pork or mutton, made radiant by myriads of brilliant lights from a small kind of glowworm. The floor consists of blocks of Urasatona that seem to hare fallen from

the roof, aud the fragments are scattered about promiscuously. Indications «how that the cavern has originally been of much greater length, as at the lower end for a distance of about sixty feet the roof has fallen in, after which the cavera again continues for about 132 feet. The cave has a fall of probably between thirty and forty feet from its upper extremity, and its exploration without candles and matches would have been extremely risky, The labor in scrambling down the bush track to reach the spot is very consider* able, but it is amply repaid by one of the most wonderful sights in this part of New Zealand.—Wairarapa Star.