576 REPORT— 1 898. 



The Sakai Cave. 



A good way further to the east, along the same face, are several other 

 caves, one of which is known as the Sakai Cave, on account of there being 

 the remains of occupation by the wild tribes, in the form of palm -leaf 

 sheltei's and rough charcoal drawings on the walls. 



It was especially investigated as being likely to contain traces of 

 occupation by earlier races. It is quite a small cavern with a rather wide 

 mouth. Remains of old cave floors are to be seen all round on both sides, 

 consisting of an exceedingly hard brown rock much impregnated with 

 lime, and full of angular pieces of limestone, and containing also bones of 

 bats and shells of mollusca. 



The greater part of the floor has, however, been broken down by a 

 stream which ran across the cave and out of the mouth, filling up the 

 entrance with soil for a considerable depth. The stream has evidently 

 long been dry, and it is on the soil at the mouth that the Sakais have en- 

 camped. Two parallel trenches were dug across the cave to a depth of 

 over six feet. In the one nearest to the mouth the soil was found to 

 be a dark red earth containing much iron, and in the upper part a splinter 

 of bone and a rounded stone, evidently brought from the river, and 

 probably used to support a cooking-pot, were found. Below this no trace 

 of animal or vegetable remains could be seen. The inner trench showed 

 in section a layer, of about a foot in depth, of brown soil, containing a 

 small quantity of charcoal scattered about, below which was a white, 

 granular, calcareous sand, partly agglutinated into irregular lump^, but 

 quite barren of any organic remains. It contained much mica. Mica, indeed, 

 appears in a good many of these cave sti'eam-beds, and also in the soil on 

 the upper part of the clifis. It is evidently derived from the granite hills 

 (now denuded away) which were formerly in contact with the limestone 

 ridge, the present hills being separated from the limestone by a valley 

 drained by several streams. 



It seems that the wild tribes seldom use any of these caves, and have 

 only done so comparatively lately. I did not see any trace of their having 

 been here since my last visit six months previously. 



I attempted to examine the lower part of the cave floors above 

 alluded to, but they were so covered with fallen masses of limestone from 

 the cliff-face that I was unable to get at them. 



The Fallen Cave. 



Between the Quarry Cave and the Dark Cave, and only about fifty 

 yards from the former, was a very small cave, only sixty-six feet long, in 

 a vast mass of debris fallen from the cliff, which is here quite vertical. 

 The talus is covered with trees of fairly large size, but the face from 

 which the mass fell is clearly distinguishable even yet. The cave did not 

 appear likely to be one of any interest, but on inspecting it I found a cave 

 floor about six feet above the present floor. This floor sloped to the north, 

 and there was little space above it. An examination showed that it con- 

 tained charcoal, and further excavation produced several bones, chiefly 

 fragments of ribs, which had apparently been used as food by some race 

 of men. They were often much impregnated with iron, and the medullary 

 spaces lined with crystals of carbonate of lime. The vertebra of an ape (?) 



