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Potona or Unknown New Zealand

Chapter X. A Reconnoitre and a Discovery—A Cavern of Wonders—an Assembly of the Dead

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Chapter X. A Reconnoitre and a Discovery—A Cavern of Wonders—an Assembly of the Dead.

One afternoon, Harry and I being no longer able to stick inside, determined to take a good long walk up the hill at the back of the hut.

When we started it was raining as hard as ever, but we did not care for a wet skin if we could stretch our legs. It was slippery work scaling the steep sides of the ridge up which we had made up our minds to go. The ground was thoroughly saturated with water, and small rivulets, in some cases grown into torrents, tumbled down the hill-sides; but with the help of the trees and bushes which grew everywhere, we managed to make some progress.

After some time spent in this way, we reached the foot of a small steep cliff, whose face was thickly overgrown with creeping plants.

“Here goes for a swarm up,” exclaimed Harry; and suiting the action to the word, he began climbing by the help of the network of hanging plants, while I quietly stood page 61 at the bottom “to pick up his pieces,” as I expected every moment to see him come down by the run. He had reached a small projecting ledge about half way up, when he sang out—

“I say, Dick, there's a tarnation big hole of some sort here—looks like a cave. I'm going to explore it.”

“Hold on!” I shouted. “Wait till I come up, and we'll do it together.”

“Right you are, my boy!” replied he; “I'll wait and see how you get on.”

Seizing hold of the strongest creepers I could reach, I started to work myself up; but I soon found out I had reckoned without my host, for I began to feel my strength giving way before I had got half way up to where Harry was quietly sitting watching me.

“Hard work, old fellow, isn't it?” he remarked. “Better wait till I descend again, ready to pick up your pieces. You're not as young as you used to be, my boy,” and such like expressions, which, however, I scarcely heeded, as all my time was taken up with my position. I was about to give it up as a bad job, and, despite Harry's sarcasms, descend to the ground, when I found a rest for my foot on a small projection of the rock. This enabled me to recover my breath, and in a few seconds I was beside Harry on the ledge.

In front of us was an irregular hole in the face of the cliff, about two feet wide and three in height, and which seemed to extend some distance inwards.

“What's the good of entering it?” I asked. “It's too dark to see anything without a light of some sort.”

“Well, I've got one match left, if we can manufacture a torch of some description,” replied Harry.

“A very easy thing to do,” I remarked; “the wood page 62 and brush hereabouts is so very dry, isn't it?”

“Many a true word spoken in jest,” exclaimed Harry, as he discovered some dead creepers just inside the mouth of the cave. They were tolerably dry, and we agreed to try and make a torch out of them. Collecting the driest we could find, and making them into two branches, we managed, by taking every precaution, to light one of them with our last match, which was probably also the last one in our possession.

The torch burnt freely; so seizing it and holding it in front of me, I proceeded, followed closely by Harry, to crawl into the cave.

After making our way on our hands and knees for about ten feet, the cave widened and rose in height, so that we could stand up and look about us. We found we were in a small and almost circular chamber, about four yards in diameter. The floor was covered with fine white dry sand. On further examination, we found a branch of the cave running off this one to the left.

“Shall we go on any further?” we asked one another, and answered in the affirmative.

We had another crawl of a few yards into the branch cave, when we found ourselves in a much larger and higher space than that we had left. But what was our delight and admiration in discovering that the roof of the cave was one mass of glittering crystals, which reflected the light of our torch from every direction until we were thoroughly dazzled! For some minutes neither of us spoke, but as our eyes grew accustomed to the glare, which seemed like thousands of torches reflected from as many diamonds, our tongues found utterance, but we had not words to express our feelings of admiration.

“In the name of all that's good, where have we come page 63 to?” I exclaimed. “We must have lit upon the much-abused Fairy Land at last!”

“Isn't it wonderful?” cried Harry. “Just look at all the splendid colors from those hanging masses!”

But we were suddenly brought to a sense of worldly affairs by the flickering of our torch, which was on the point of expiring. We lit the second, and at the same time, as we doubted very much whether, despite their beauties, the crystals would shine by their own light, and our torch would hardly last long enough to show us our way out of the cave, we were reluctantly forced to abandon any idea of a further examination and exploration of this wonderful production of Nature at present, but to make our way out as quickly as we could. Casting one parting glance around us, we began retracing our steps, and in almost less time than it takes to write this, we were once more standing on the ledge outside the mouth of the cave.

It was not so difficult to descend the cliff as it was to ascend; and having reached the foot in safety, we began descending the hillside at an alarming pace, utterly regardless of the torrents or anything else that came in our way. We were more like two schoolboys in our excitement and eagerness to convey the news of our discoveries to our companions.

It is needless to repeat all their questions and exclamations of astonishment as we proceeded to describe all the beauties of the cavern. Everyone was eager to visit it and see for himself, and it was determined to organize a grand party for the first fine day, and, taking with us a good supply of torches, to thoroughly explore the cave.

The two following days it was so stormy that no one thought of venturing out; but the third turned out tolerably fine, and immediately after breakfast we provided ourselves page 64 with a large number of torches, and the whole party, Swabs included, started under our guidance for the cave. We took with us a flax rope, which we intended the best and most active amongst us should first fasten upon the ledge, so as to facilitate the climbing operations of the rest. On arriving at the foot of the cliff, Harry having volunteered to carry the rope up and secure it as firmly as possible, he lost no time in repeating his feat of a few days before, and managed to fix one end of the line to a jutting corner of the rock. This done, we began one by one to ascend, and by the help of the rope we were soon all standing or crouching at the mouth of the cave.

A couple of torches were now lighted by the tedious operation of flint and steel, for we had exhausted our stock of matches. Harry and I took one each, and began crawling into the cave. On emerging into the first apartment, we halted until all the party had joined us before advancing any further. After a cursory examination of this chamber, we led the way into the second and magnificent one. All the men were as much if not more astonished than we ourselves had been on our first view of its beauties.

“Shure! thim's raal dimonds and jewels we see glistening so foinely, aint they captain?” exclaimed Moroney.

“No, Pat; they are called stalactites, and I imagine must be formed of some kind of saline matter.” So saying I picked up one of the pieces of crystal which had fallen to the floor, and found, on tasting it, that it had a saltish flavor. I had no doubt then that it was a sort of rock salt.

The cavern seemed to extend in front of us to a great distance, and we determined to explore it further. As we advanced, the floor became damp, and drops of water kept falling from the icicles hanging from the roof. The beauties of the cave seemed to increase as we proceeded.

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When we had penetrated about twenty or thirty yards further, we were suddenly brought up by a yawning chasm which extended right across the cave. On peering over its edge we could see no bottom, but at a great depth below we could hear the rushing of water. The chasm was about ten yards wide in front of us, but narrowed as it descended, and the cavern seemed to continue for some distance on the opposite side.

We were about turning to retrace our steps when one of the men sang out that he had discovered another cave branching off on our right. We hastened to where he was standing, and sure enough behind a corner of the rocky wall, there seemed to be an opening of some extent. We had to repeat our crawling manœeuvres for a few yards, when we emerged into a third and much larger division of the cavern than either of the two preceding ones.

On holding our torches aloft, our eyes rested on a spectacle that made us recoil with horror, and sent the blood curdling back in our veins. All along one side of the apartment and directly facing us were rows upon rows of grinning skeletons. They were all placed in the same position, viz., on their haunches; their knees were drawn up to their chins, and their arms were hanging loosely at their sides. Ugh! the remembrance of that ghastly crew makes me shiver still. It was some time before any of us recovered sufficiently to remove our eyes from them.

Rows of grinning skeletons, did I say? This will hardly express my full meaning. Say rather a vast charnel-house, extending into the dark depths of the cavern—as far as the light of our torches glanced we could see the same grim lines of the dead.

On recovering ourselves somewhat our tongues became loosened, and numerous were the exclamations of horror and page 66 surprise, coupled with which might be noticed an under-current akin to dread. The atmosphere of itself was quite sufficient to give a man the shivers; we felt as if we were under the influence of a dreadful nightmare. By degrees our feelings of curiosity asserted themselves, and we began to examine the skeletons, and other extraordinary signs of the place.

Some of the remains must have been there for ages, for on being touched they crumbled away to dust; others were more recent, and the bones hung together by dried skin and sinews. One, near the front, seemed as if it had only been placed there comparatively lately, for it still retained a strong offensive odour. No doubt the exceeding dryness of the air in this branch of the cave assisted in preserving these remains. By the side of some of them were curiously carved implements; in one place we found greenstone and slate hatchets, sharpened to a very fine edge; here we observed long spears of a very hard wood, also clubs of the same substance; and there we discovered a long pole, attached to one end of which was some sort of cloth, dyed several colors, and probably used as a kind of flag or banner.

On the walls of the cave numerous designs, not without some artistic skill, were portrayed. One represented two men fighting, one with a club, the other with a hatchet; another represented a huge bird with a spear through it; besides which there were various groups of characters of which we could make nothing. It was, however, now time to think of returning, as our torches were about exhausted; so putting off further examination to a future day, we retraced our steps, and by dark were once again in the hut.