ON THE CAVES IN THE MALAY PENINSULA. 581 



One or two other centipedes were also seen and caught, as well as a 

 small pinkish millipede and a white myriapod, somewhat resembling 

 Polydesmus, both of which occurred in damp spots on the ground. 



Iso'poda. 

 Woodlice {Armadillo intermixtus) were common on the walls. 



Mollusca. 



Stenogyra tchehelensis was very common, especially where water ran 

 over the rocks. The shells are whitish, the animal dull yellow. It 

 seemed to have a habit of rolling itself in the bat-dung, collecting a ball 

 of it on its shell. 



I sought in vain for Crustacea in the few pools which appeared to be 

 permanent in the caves. There seemed to be no trace of any animal life 

 in them. 



I have excluded from the cave fauna such stray insects, itc, which 

 only occurred in the open shafts or in the mouths of the caves. All the 

 animals above mentioned were met with in perfect darkness, and the 

 greatest number occurred in the furthest part of the Dark Cave, nearly 

 half a mile from the mouth. 



Comparison with the Bornean Caves. 



The Bornean limestone caves were investigated by Mr. A. H. Everett 

 in 1878 and 1879, and some also by Beccari in 1865, and there are also a 

 few observations on the Limestone and its Caves, by Posewitz (' Borneo : 

 Its Geology and Mineral Resources '). 



I gather from these papers that the limestone in Boi-neo is quite 

 identical with that of Selangor. Mr. Everett, however, found encrinites 

 in some part of it, but no fossils have as yet been found in any of the 

 limestone of the Malay Peninsula. The fossils show that the formation is 

 Carboniferous Limestone. The Borneo rocks, again, show traces of sea 

 action at no great distance of time. I can see nothing of this in the 

 Selangor rocks, but, curiously, there is a tradition among the Malays that 

 the sea originally came as far as this, and that the rocks themselves are 

 a portion of a ship turned into stone. 



Bones other than those of bats seem to be more abundant in the 

 Borneo caves, but, like those of Selangor, belong to animals still extant in 

 the neighbourhood. It appears, however, from Mr. Everett's paper, that 

 the living cave fauna is a good deal more extensive than that of Selangor, 

 but I do not know of any detailed account of it. 



Human remains are more plentiful, and show a rather high state of 

 civilisation. But it must be remembered that the earliest race in the 

 Malay Peninsula of whom we know anything are the Sakais, who are by 

 no means as highly civilised as Dyaks, making no works of art such as 

 pottery, beads or metal-work, and possessing no domestic animal except 

 the dog ; and it is highly improbable that the earlier race who used the 

 stone axes commonly found in the peninsula were more highly civilised. 



It was to be hoped that remains throwing light on the Stone-age men 

 of the Malay Peninsula might have been found in the caves, but as yet 

 nothing has been found anywhere in the whole peninsula except the axes 

 themselves. 



