CAVE DWELLERS OF PERAK. 9 



In 188.6 a cave iu a limestone hill near Ipoh, in Kinia, 

 known as Gunong Cheroh, was visited. This cave is some forty 

 feet above the level of the Kiuta river, which passes close by 

 the foot of it. The cave is a rock shelter, evidently cut out 

 by the action of the river in past times. Near by are some 

 large caverns which are now well known and often visited. 

 Some pits were sunk in these large caves and except on the 

 surface, where there was some recent Malayan pottery, ashes, 

 etc., nothing was found but a few small bones of bats and 

 birds. The earth was mostly a stiff yellow clay. In the rock 

 shelters, however, were foi;nd vast quantities of fresh water 

 shells, both univalves and bivalves. Land shells were also 

 present in considerable numbers. Nearly all the univalves had 

 had their points broken off so that the animal might be easily 

 extracted. Amongst tlie shells were numbers of bones, all the 

 larger of which had been broken to get at the marrow, and 

 many of them were more or less burjit. Pieces of burnt earth 

 and charcoal were also of frequent occurrence throughout, the 

 material composing the floor of the cave. The most striking 

 feature, however, was the extraordinary number of shells. In 

 places they formed a layer over twelve feet in thickness. Por- 

 tions of this layer were composed of beds of stalagmite, that 

 is to say the shells and bones cemented together with carbonate 

 of lime. Some of these layers of conglomerate are as much 

 as five feet in thickness. The present floor of this cave is some 

 six to eight feet lower than it has been at a previous period. 

 This is clearly shewn by some masses of shell and bone con- 

 glomerate sticking on to the back wall of the shelter at that 

 height above the present level. 



In one place a curious thing is to be seen, an immense 

 stalactite hangs from the roof, and at a height of some eight 

 feet from the ground is a large flat mass of the shell con- 

 glomerate attached to and suspended iu mid air by it. The 

 floor level having fallen the stalactite has gone on forming 

 again below the layer of conglomerate. 



About eighteen inches beneath the existing surface of the 

 floor there was found a portion of a meaHng stone, and a 

 short way from it the stone that had been used as the mullor. 

 The former is of granite, about eight and a half inches in 

 diameter and two and a quarter inches thick. It is undressed, 

 having probably Ijeen found iu the bed of a river. The mullor is 

 three and three-quarter inches long and two and five -eighth 

 inches in diameter. It is also of hard granite, and has been 

 originally obtained from a river bed. The mealing stone has 

 been used on both sides, and is worn quite thin in the middle. 



