TEN INDIANA CAVES. 145 



from rock to rock, and, reaching another opening, 

 crawled over a natural bridge, and on hands and knees 

 crept for seventy-five feet through the "Grecian 

 Bend." Finally we emerged into "Odd Fellows' 

 Hall," one of the grand under-ground rooms for which 

 W vaudotte is noted This we measured carefully and 

 found to be ninety feet wide, 210 feet long and sixty- 

 five feet or more in height. The massive ledges of 

 limestone forming the walls project toAvard the top, 

 each layer a few inches farther than the one below, so 

 that the ceiling is oval in shape, much narrower than 

 the fioor and appears to be hollowed out by succes- 

 sive fallings of rock. Great masses of fallen rock 

 partially fill the room, and tens of thousands of the 

 little brown bat, Vespertilio subulatxs feay, hung head 

 downward from the ceiling. We extinguished the 

 lights, and their low squealing notes became instantly 

 hushed ; the only sound which broke the death-like 

 stillness being a continuous faint and lisping noise, 

 like the ripple of water over a distant water-fall, due 

 probably to the rustle of the wings of such as were 

 flying through the Plutonian darkness. 



The bats choose as a resting place that part of the 

 roof where small portions have begun to flake, giving 

 a certain degree of roughness, or small crevices, to 

 which they can cling. They cannot attach their claws 



to a smooth surface, hence from large 

 Cave Bats. ' 



portions ot the root of a room they 



may be entirely absent. In places where they find a 

 suitable foothold they congregate so closely together 

 that it is difficult to pull one from the midst of a 

 group. On a low ceiling in Salt Petre Cave, near 

 10 



