BLUE MOUNTAINS AND JENOLAN CAVES ILLUSTRATED TOURIST GUIDE

HEALTH IN HEIGHT

BLUE MOUNTAINS AS SANATORIUM

SLICE OF POPULAR PHYSIOLOGY

As a sanatorium the Blue Mountains come second to no other region in New South Wales; and because of the health-producing qualities of the various resorts hundreds of thousands flock there during the summer season, as much as for the natural beauties that are right at hand.

To quote one authority, mountain air has particular and special chemical and vital properties that make it conspicuous. One of its distinguishing features is its absolute purity. There is a perfect freedom from the organic impurities and foul emanations common to crowded cities.

Healthful & Invigorating

In addition to all that, mountain air contains a relatively large amount of ozone -- one of the most powerful disinfectants known -- and it follows that it is a great purifier of the air. Oxonized air is healthful and invigorating. The violet rays of the mountain sunlight, further, act chemically on the blood and improve its quality by increasing its red corpuscles. With most people mountain air acts as a general tonic and promotes the appetite. One doesn't require to be in any of the many excellent accommodation houses on the heights very long before both experiencing and observing the latter fact.

Slip, Slop, Slap!

Protect yourself from ultra-violet radiation!
Slip on a T-shirt, Slop on the suncream, Slap on a hat!

But the mountaineer not only eats well -- the Board of Trade incidently, ought to fence the mountains off from the lower levels in reckoning up the cost of living -- but he generally sleeps like the proverbial top. The bracing air acts as a soporific. The rest, too, is much more refreshing than in other parts; six hours on the mountains is put down by medical authorities as good as eight on the coast or inland.

Doctors also tell us that mountain air possesses the remarkable property of promoting metabolism. Which, interpreted, means that it hastens the various changes that are continually taking place throughout the human system. It replaces the old, overworked, worn-out tissues with new stuff, and at the same time sets the functions more regularly to work, firms the muscles, strengthens the nerves, brightens up the mental powers, and puts a natural tint into the cheeks as distinctly as, but less spuriously than, the city girl's hard-worked rouge.

All these truths go to show that the Blue Mountains are a good place to be in, either for a holiday or permanently, and their wider realisation has become responsible for the increased popularity of the resorts as a whole.

The crowds flock to the Mountains in the summer -- with only a relative trickle of traffic in the winter. But that doesn't alter the fact that the highlands are just as healthful in June as in December. And they are not as severe as is popularly supposed, either. The higher resistance that the air and general surroundings promote more than balance the effects of the cold westerlies, or of snow and ice.

Scenically, the Blue Mountains have a lot on the counter in the winter. Some of the most enchanting views that are to be had in any part of Australia are created at the many falls and rivulets and elevated points by the scintillating ice and spotless snow. The heavily mantled trees and shrubs, the frozen falls, and the snow-capped crags and peaks are a delightful change from the every-day -- though beautiful in itself -- scenery around any of the resorts.

The Mountains as a winter resort, will undoubtedly become more popular when the facts are given their proper emphasis.

Warm clothing and strong boots should be a portion of your equipment at any time of the year.