156 KOTA GLANGGI. 
use the hackneyed phrase, could hold it against an army. 
Passing through Kota Tongkat, we went first to Kota Birong. I 
was rather disappointed with this cave, but it was welll saw it 
first and not last. It lies low, and consists of two or three 
long and wide, comparatively low-roofed caverns, of great extent, 
but not imposing in appearance. The most striking feature about 
it was the enormous number of bats that swarmed in myriads; 
and the flutter of whose wings made a noise like the distant sound 
of a water-fall; indeed I mistook it for that at first, and expected 
to meet with a subterraneous river, but was soon disabused of 
that idea. We had about twenty torches, and the bats came 
fluttering around us so thickly, that I kept bobbing my head 
about perpetually to avoid their dashing against my face, but the 
marvel was that, although two or three times one brushed my 
sleeve not once did we collide. ‘The air was so dense with them, 
that it seemed an utter impossibility to pass and repass amongst 
them without coming in contact. 
We next inspected Kota Glanggi, which is situated higher up 
the cliffs. It is approached through a narrow entrance of some 
length, from which one emerges into a fine, open, lofty cave, 
with a large opening in the face of the cliff. As this entrance 
brought us in at the back of the cave, the first effect pro- 
duced on looking through the stupendous gloom which surrounded 
us to the distant yet dazzling light of this opening, was very fine, 
and this effect was enhanced by the circumstance that about 
twenty of our company had reached the cave before us, and having 
seated themselves close to the opening, looked like so many 
pigmies, whose small dark forms were thrown athwart the light 
with startling distinctness of outline, and served to give some idea 
of the vast proportions of the cavern. The appearance of this cave 
is not unlike that I have described on the Patani, but much larger 
in its proportions; from it, however, branch off other caves of extra- 
ordinary height. Ascending a steep and slippery incline at an 
angle of about 60° or 70° by the aid of holes chipped in the rock, a 
eallery is reached, on each side of which rises a lofty dome about one 
hundred feet high, and both narrow, one being only about fifteen feet 
wide at the bottom: one of these domes is lighted from the top by 
