84 Naturalist at Large 



iards. This turned out to be the case, and we dug, sifted, 

 and screened on many occasions. We found the bones of 

 a number of extinct animals and, to top it all, the only ab- 

 solutely perfect skull of the extinct rodent Boromys torrei 

 which has ever been found anywhere. 



A visit to a second Cuban cave also turned out to be 

 extremely valuable. My young friend Victor Rodriguez 

 and I set forth from Havana to Matanzas and there 

 changed cars to a little branch railroad which ran down 

 into the Black Belt of Cuba, the southern part of Matanzas 

 Province. We got off the train at Alacranes, not far from 

 the larger village of Union de Reyes, and inquired for 

 La Cueva del M. 



We found it was in an area mostly planted out in cane 

 and we chartered an old, broken-down victoria, drove as 

 far as the road would allow, and then walked on. The 

 cave was as easy to explore as any I have ever seen. We 

 entered through a great open archway and descended by 

 a gradual inclined slope until finally we came to a great 

 body of water which completely covered the floor of the 

 cave. There was no going beyond this point. We could 

 not have done so even if we had had a boat, because the 

 roof of the cave dropped down, so that there was only a 

 very short space between the roof of the cave and the sur- 

 face of the water. This subterranean lake simply swarmed 

 with life. We got a wonderful collection of blind fishes, 

 finding both of the known species living there side by side 

 with blind shrimps. 



When we reached the mouth of the cave on our return 

 we were surrounded by rural guards and promptly ar- 

 rested. But thanks to Dr. de la Torre, we had credentials 



