298 IN AFRICA 



length. Along the inner edge were the crumbling 

 remains of little mud and wattle huts that had been 

 occupied by people a long time before. Beyond 

 this great entrance hall were passages that led into 

 other vast, echoing caverns with domes like those of 

 a cathedral. 



Countless thousands of bats darted about us as 

 our voices broke the silence of ages, and in places 

 the deposits of bats were two or three feet deep. 

 It staggered one's senses to think how long these 

 creatures had dwelt within the labyrinth of caverns 

 and passageways. 



We explored the cave for a quarter of a mile or 

 so, stumbling, stooping, climbing, and sliding down 

 precipitous slopes. Far off in the darkness sounded 

 the steady drip, drip, drip of water, and several 

 times our progress was stopped by black lakes into 

 which a tossed stone would tell of depths that might 

 be almost bottomless. We fired our shotguns and 

 the loosened dirt and rocks and the thunder of thou- 

 sands of bats' wings were enough to terrify the 

 senses. 



There is no telling how many centuries or ages 

 these caverns have stood as they stand to-day. 

 Doubtless the wild tribes of the mountain have oc- 

 cupied them for thousands of years, and doubtless 

 a thousand years from now the descendants of these 

 tribes of people and bats will still be there in the 

 cisternlike caverns with the broad fan of sparkling 

 water spreading like a beautiful curtain across the 

 great archway of an entrance. 



