382 Mr H. Gadow, On some Caves in Portugal. [Mar. 15, 



covered with small rocks, which, although partly cleared away and 

 heaped up here and there, leave only small irregular patches of a 

 few inches of red clay, baked during the rainless summer into the 

 hardness of bricks. 



The entrance to the caves, which are two in number, is just 

 below the north-eastern brink of the valley; access to them is 

 easiest from the plateau. The bearings of the caves are as 

 follows : 



26° to westward is the village of Salir, distant about 4 miles. 



140° to south-east, distant 3 miles, Querenca, where the 

 owner lives, a poor peasant of 73 years of age, called Manoel da 

 Silva. 



25° to east a small village, called Serra da Corte. 



On the western side of the river, opposite the caves, are seen 

 at a distance of one mile several hamlets, distinguished as Corte 

 do Neto and Corte Ximica. 



During my visit in April, 1884, the caves did not yield anything 

 but the following bats: Miniopterus schreibersi, Rhinolophus 

 hipposideros, Rh. hippocrepis, Yespertilio murinus; there were no 

 invertebrates visible, nor was there any water in the caves. 



The fragment of a recent goat's skull and a few bones of birds 

 made me wish to excavate the caverns, but that was then im- 

 possible. It rained in torrents during nearly the whole of April, 

 and there is no inn in the villages, the nearest accommodation 

 being at Louie, and that is four or five hours off. In short, to 

 explore the caves properly would have required long preparation. 



I then (likewise in 1884) visited the Pogo or Buraco dos 

 Mouros (almost every cavern, ruin, well and castle in the south of 

 Portugal is connected with the Moors by the peasants) near 

 Benafim and Alte. The entrance to the cave lies nearly on the 

 top of an abruptly ending plateau of the Jurassic Kocha da Pena, 

 a mountain nearly 1500 feet above the sea level. We had to 

 lower ourselves for about 15 feet, and reached a funnel about 

 6 feet high ; the floor, covered with blocks, slopes down towards 

 the left for perhaps 50 yards, then comes a sudden turn to the 

 right, which can now — on account of the fallen blocks — be passed 

 only by crawling flat on one's belly, head downwards, because the 

 incline is steep ; after having veered round two or three times at 

 right angles towards the right, we suddenly entered an enormous 

 vault with stalagmitic roof and many pillars. The dripping of 

 water is heard in several nooks ; except a small pool, holding 

 perhaps a dozen buckets of water, there was no water whatever in 

 this cavern, and that little contained no visible living creatures. 



The height of the vault may be from 20 to 25 feet, its diameter 

 60 feet. There is no outlet or large recess leading anywhere out 

 of this round the dome, except that by which we entered. The 



