CAVE DWELLERS OF PERAK. 11 



out in an unbrokeu state so, unfortunately, not much more can 

 be told about them. Some short way above these skeletons was 

 a well defined hearth and over all had, at a previous time, been 

 a bed of about four feet of hard shell and bone stalagmite. 

 A careful search was made for implements near the bodies but 

 nothing was found. 



The other bones found in the cave were of many different 

 animals and fish, wild pig and deer being the most common. 

 No bones bearing traces of human workmanship were found in 

 this or any other cave, but all the larger bones had been 

 broken, and many of them more or less burned. One bone 

 bears teeth marks on it, apparently having been gnawed by a 

 dog, and it may perhaps have been the work of a domesticated 

 animal. The shells were all of recent species, belonging to the 

 following genera : — Unio, Paludina, Ampularia, Hybocistis, 

 CycloplioTus, Bidimus, etc. 



There were also found in this cave three valves of a marine 

 bivalve — a species of Gyrena* which is very common in the 

 mangrove swamps of the sea coast. Mr. Cecil Wray sent to 

 the Perak Museum a piece of stalagmite containing another 

 valve of the same species of mollusc, which had been obtained 

 by the late Mr. William Cameron from a cave in a hill near 

 Kapayong in Kinta, while another sea shell of a different species 

 was found at Gunong Pondok, near Gapis. 



The presence of these sea shells is evidence that there was 

 intercourse of some sort between the dwellers in the cave and the 

 inhabitants of the sea coast ; or, what is more probable when 

 the conditions of savage life are taken into account, the cave 

 dwellers were themselves in the habit of making periodical visits 

 to the coast, and on their return brought back a few sea shells. 

 This latter view of the case receives considerable support from 

 the occurrence of so called " kitchen middens " near the coast. 

 Mention is made of one of these by Dr. J. G. Koenig in his 

 journal of a voyage from India to Siam and Malacca in 1779, 

 though it is evident he had no idea of the modern interpretation 

 of these deposits of shells. He says, when describing his visit to 

 the harbour of Kedah : — " The country is very low everywhere, 

 and consists of a very muddy soil, intersected by yet muddier 

 canals ... I could see that the soil underneath the mud 

 consists only of cardia ... A few steps further on I 

 saw some Christian graves near the path. I could see from the 

 thrown up earth that the soil consisted only of cardia, and 

 was little intermixed with clay." From which it would appear 



* Since identified at the British Museum as Cyrena sumatrensis, Lour. 



