74 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



to feel much relieved. The residts of this trip, besides our cave 

 material, w^ere a fine assortment of small birds, 79 skins, 42 skeletons, 

 together with a few bats. 



On the morning of March 14 we left La Gonave for St. Marc, and 

 left there at daybreak the next day on the express for Port au Prince, 

 which consisted of a motor-driven engine and one passenger coach. 

 Our next trip took us to Cerca La Source, some 30 miles to the east 

 of Hinche, and near the Dominican border. We camped about 5 

 miles out from the village, near a large cave that we were to inves- 

 tigate. This cave was somewhat different from any of the others we 

 had worked in. It had two entrances of aljout the same size, one 

 opening on the south, the other on the east, and but a few yards from 

 one another. The slope from each entrance to the base or floor was 

 quite steep, being about 30 feet in depth. The two passages joined 

 at the floor level of the cave. The main chamber was circular, about 

 25 feet in diameter, with low ceiling, and no signs of either stalactites 

 or stalagmites such as we had found in most of the other caves. 

 From this central chamber ran five tunnel-like, long, narrow pas- 

 sages, two toward the south and three toward the north. The two 

 southern passages were carefully explored and found to extend about 



75 to 100 feet, narrowing considerably at their terminus, and both 

 with low ceilings. One of the northerly passages was almost a dupli- 

 cate of the two just mentioned while another rose quite abruptly and 

 came to an end at a distance of about 50 feet. The fifth one, we were 

 unable to explore fully. In all the passages a few small bats were 

 seen, either clinging to the low ceiling or flying about. In order to 

 get into the fifth or last chamber mentioned, we were compelled to 

 climb over an enormous bank of bat guano, some 15 or 18 feet in 

 height, which all Imt obscured the entrance. After we passed be- 

 yond this guano heap and had traversed the narrow passageway for 

 some 30 or 40 feet, we felt as if we were walking into an oven, the 

 heat being terrific, and the ammonia fumes so strong that it was 

 almost impossil^le to breathe. Bats were flying about us in great 

 numbers, hitting us on all parts of the body, as the passageway had 

 now become a mere tunnel about 3 feet wide and 4 feet high. With 

 the aid of electric lanterns, we could see, perhaps 30 or 40 feet farther 

 back, what appeared to be a solid mass of bats. We finally were 

 forced to return to the outer chamber and fresh air. 



We had noticed on the previous evening, at dusk, that thousands 

 of bats suddenly appeared among the trees and around our house, 

 and continued to come for quite a period of time. On the following 

 day, we discovered the enormous bat colony in the cave, so decided 



