234 EAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. [Oh. XTV. 



bathing, and looked up in astonishment at the large party 

 of intruders skirting the edge of the ravine. Following this 

 it led us directly into the cavern, the entrance of which was 

 grandly arched, and somewhat recalled the entrance to the 

 Peak in Derbyshire. The interior was very spacious and 

 irregular : the left-hand side was hoUowed out into intricate 

 chambers, with irregular natural steps leading from one to 

 another, and loopholes connecting them. The Dyaks 

 having provided us with flambeaux of bamboos, we entered 

 and explored these chambers, disturbing a number of large 

 bats which had taken refuge there for the day. AU that 

 side of the cave was heaped up with an irregular and deep 

 deposit of an alluvial character, while on the right-hand side 

 a deep channel was cut in the rock by the stream, which 

 entered at the other end of the cave, and which, having once 

 been large enough to excavate the whole cavern, had now 

 dwindled to a rivulet flowing through this narrow, rocky 

 channel, which was also continuous with the deep ravine 

 first alluded to. From the roof of the cave, in many places, 

 depended enormous stalactites many feet long, and of a 

 diameter sometimes exceeding that of a man's body. The 

 cause of this appearance was not difficult to be explained, 

 for above the cavern trees were growing, the roots of which 

 had penetrated the soil above and sent down fibres through 

 the roof; the water percolating along their course had at 

 once encouraged their growth and elongation, and carried 

 down calcareous particles which encrusted them as they 

 grew, so that each enormous stalactite was a network of 

 rootlets entangling between them, and encrusted with, masses 

 of lime. 



Of course I was in no position to undertake anything .like 

 excavation in this cave, much as I should have liked to learn 



