8 CAVE DWELLERS OF PERAK. 



remains, clearly poiutiug to prolonged human occupation. It is 

 quite possible that the " rock shelters " of Borneo have also 

 served as dwellings in prehistoric times, for as far as can be 

 gathered from the published reports of the investigations this 

 class of cave was not examined. 



To come now to the cave dwellings of Perak. As has 

 already been said, the caves which have been inhabited are 

 those which are formed by the overhanging of the cliffs, and 

 not those caverns which ai-e hollowed out in the rock. The 

 same class of cave was inhabited by many of the cave dwellers 

 of Europe, and have yielded rich stores of archaeological speci- 

 mens. Rock shelters wei-e also inhabited by the early New 

 Zealanders. It was in some of these caves that the remains 

 of the extinct gigantic wingless bird — the Moa — were dis- 

 covered with those of man. 



In places the way in which these overhanging cliffs have 

 been formed is a23parent, and they are even now being hollowed 

 out by the action of the rivers. In Upper Perak a very 

 interesting example is to be seen at the base of Gunong Sonah. 

 The Perak river has eaten into the hill to the extent of some 

 twenty feet or moi-e, and when the river is not in flood a boat 

 can be taken right along under the overhanging base of the 

 almost perpendicular side of the hill. When the river shifts its 

 course a little as in the natural sequence of events it is sure to 

 do, this large cave will form an excellent camping ground for 

 a large number of persons. This is the history of almost all 

 these caves. Another very good example is to be seen on the 

 face of the limestone hills between Ipoh and Sungei Raiah, 

 in Kinta. The floor of it is now some twenty feet above the 

 present level of the ground, and it extends for a length of 

 over half a mile. At the time when the stream was sculpturing 

 this terraced cave out of the rock -face of the hill the level 

 of the valley must have been some thirty feet higher than it now 

 is. This lowering of the valley represents, in a wide valley hke 

 the Kinta, a period of very many thousands of years. Some 

 of the cave dwellings are at considerably higher levels than 

 this, and are consequently of greater antiquity. 



The first time the writer noticed evidences of the ancient 

 human habitation of these caves was in the year 1880, in the 

 western end of the limestone hill at Gapis, called Gunong 

 Pondok. Here shell and bone stalagmites were found of 

 considerable thickness. Since then similar signs have been 

 found in nearly every limestone hill that has been carefully 

 examined. 



