Subterranean Rivers 301 
crag close to the summit known as £7 éa/con, a natural balcony of 
rock, whence a stone can be dropped into the boiling stream 420 ft. 
below. 
The most interesting subterranean stream I know is one not 
far from Benaojan which emerges from a huge cavern, over 60 ft. 
in height, known as the La Cueva del Gato (the cat's cave) due to 
its supposed resemblance to a cat’s head and eyes. The roof of 
this cavern is closely studded with hundreds of the mud_ nests 
of the House Martin, which are built close together, in many 
instances overlapping. The general effect of these as viewed 
from the stream 100 ft. below is that of a mason-wasp’s nest 
on a gigantic scale. This stream emerges in considerable volume 
at a point about 1,450 ft. above the sea. For a long time I 
was uncertain whence it came, but a few years ago, when 
travelling through the sierra some miles to the north, I came 
upon a swift-flowing stream which I was assured disappeared into 
the earth. Two years later I had an opportunity to verify this 
and chancing to be in the neighbourhood in the late spring when 
the water was low, we followed the stream down until it entered 
a narrow gorge between vertical cliffs. Working along the top of 
these we at length reached the edge of a deep ravine ending in 
an amphitheatre of rocks. It was truly a weird spot; we were 
walled in by a series of cliffs 300 ft. high or more and above these 
were rocky terraces surmounted by two huge pinnacle crags 300 ft. 
or 400 ft. still higher, about which a pair of Golden Eagles were 
playing. Descending the cliff for 320 ft. we reached the stream 
which here enters a huge vertical chasm over 150 ft. in height 
and disappears from view round an elbow of rock. It was a most 
remarkable spot, for from the whitened and polished rocks in the 
bed of the stream where we stood we could look up and see, 
over 1,000 ft. right above us, the dark peaks, with the brilliant 
blue sky and drifting masses of white cloud above all. 
