NOTES ON THE SIAMESE PROVINCES OF KOOWI, &C. 65 



some means other than the river to account for its presence 

 here and thus. Still proceeding seawards, and having crossed 

 this land of conglomerate, one again comes to the " country 

 rock" — metamorphosed clay slate. On the coast, laterite is 

 abundant, often forming low cliffs, but the hills skirting the 

 sea and most of the islands are of a limestone that gives forth 

 a metallic ring when struck. 



Limestone Hills and Caves, 



About a mile to the West of the village of Bangtaphan, rais- 

 ing its somewhat flattish top some five hundred feet above the 

 surrounding alluvial plain with its old sea beaches, is a rather 

 typical limestone hill with a sloping side to the land, and like 

 others of its kind, a steepish side to the sea sheltering the 

 mouths of numerous caves of various sorts and sizes. To 

 gain the principal cave, one ascends some fifty feet to find 

 the mouth as sharply cut as, and somewhat after the manner 

 of, a cathedral door, and as the cave retreats from its mouth 

 it increases in every dimension. The floor, running back- 

 wards for some 80 feet, mounts in three great tiers some 60 

 feet wide, the last and highest tier being sacred to a gilt 

 Bhudda with a perfect myriad of leaden apostles round about 

 him, for the cave is used as an occasional place of worship, 

 as these caves commonly are in Siam. The roof rises in 

 vaults, the highest of all rising to some forty feet and is pierc- 

 ed by what the Scottish people familiarly know as a " Hell's 

 Lum. n From the shape of the caves, from those "Hell's Lums." 

 and from their situation on the steep side facing the sea, one 

 naturally concludes they are the result of sea-action. One 

 can see lines, more or less parallel to the surface slope of the 

 hill running along the walls of those caves, as if they demar- 

 cated concentric layers which had been deposited by some 

 spring that rose in the centre of the hill, overflowed, and laved 

 its sides, and the not uncommon nearly concave top lends 

 some support to such a guess. It seems highly probable that 

 out of the solidified debris in the floors of those caves, animal 

 remains, recent or otherwise, might be obtained, although a 

 search made in those of Borneo ( see the Society's Journal for 



