NEW FAIRYLAND

Taranaki Daily News, 27 July 1935, Page 6 (Supplement)

NEW FAIRYLAND

GREAT CAVE FOUND BY CHANCE.

A SIGHT FOR JUBILEE YEAR. Catching his foot in a small hole in the ground an explorer on Treak Cliff, above the famous caves at Castleton in Derbyshire, found the entrance to a cave which is claimed to be the largest in England. „ , . The small help proved to be a pothole, through which, in prehistoric, days, water found its way into a fissure m the limestone rock, below, wearing it away into a cave. . Freeing his foot the surprised explorer proceeded to widen the hole, found suprises greater still, and local geologists have now made more extensive excavations. They have been lowered down a hole 40 feet deep, and entered a cavern which, .they declare, far surpasses in beauty the famous Cheddar Caves. The stalactites and stalagmites have a size and grandeur, we have been told, rivalling those to be seen in the giant caves of America and New South Wales. Treak Cliff Cavern is on the same hillside as the famous Blue John Cavern but higher up. One of the stalactites in the blue John forms a curtain 12 feet high, standing out from the rock for 10 inches, while there is also a wonderful array of pillars, clusters and pendants. A spar coloured like amethyst and topaz is a lovely product of the limestone in this cavern, and it is probable that the Romans quarried from this source the material for two famous vases which were found in the ashes of Pompeii, buried for 18 centuries after reflecting the sunlight for a few brief years on a rich Roman’s table. Blue John is perhaps the most beautiful natural stone found in Britain. A dinner service made from it has been sold for £3OOO. Unfortunately it is becoming scarce, and it is doubtful if the new cave will yield further supplies. It was in Dove Holes, a few miles away, toward Buxton, that Professor Boyd Dawkins discovered, in 1902, the magnificent series of bones and teeth of extinct mastodons, rhinoceroses, elephants and horses, which for the first time put Britain on a level with France in this respect. Many of the- bones of the younger mastodons showed the teeth marks of hyenas. Mr. W. H. Salt, the archaeologist, thinks similar remains will be found in Treak Cliff Cavern; but no remains of man are expected, owing to the cavern’s early age. A hundred electric lights for floodlighting are being installed in the cavern, and visitors will be able to gaze on the beautiful, lacework of stalactites hanging from the roof and of stalagmites leaping from the ground to meet them. In the meantime the many side passages and the chambers they lead to are being carefully explored.