I8J2. SIBILO. — THE CAVERN. — MELANCHOLY OCCURRENCE. 
257 
kind of paint, whicli may be used either in water-color drawing or in 
oil-painting, by grinding it either in gum-water or in oil : and in 
finishing my drawings of the natives, I have found it most admirably 
suited for giving the exact color together with that peculiar glittering 
which it would be impossible to imitate by any other means. 
On ascending the hill and approaching the rock, I found a large 
open cavern or excavation about twenty feet high, and penetrating 
about thirty feet inwards. This, being open to the daylight, afforded 
a better situation for examining the mine, than the deeper excava- 
tions which can only be seen by the light of a torch or lantern. The 
whole rock appeared to be composed of this species of iron-ore, 
mingled in some places with a quartzose rock. The ore is mostly 
hard and ponderous ; but frequently friable and easily falling to 
pieces, so that the floor of the cavern was found deeply covered with 
the loose powder. To the cieling, a number of small hats were 
hanging; and on the projecting crags, a species of dove [Columba 
Guinecnsis) takes its nightly roost : thus this cave is never without 
inhabitants, either the bats by day, or by night the doves. These are 
called batseeba (batsaba) in the Sichuana language ; and the bats, 
mammatwdn. A narrow and low passage leads from the outer cavern 
to an inner chamber, from which this ore is principally dug. The 
size of this excavation, supposing it to be wholly the work of art, 
proves that this powder has been in use during many generations ; 
and indeed its glittering property, its red color, and its soft greasy 
quality, seem to render it exactly suitable to the ornamental taste of 
all the neighbouring nations. 
Muchunka related a melancholy occurrence which took place a 
few years before, when several Bachapins lost their lives in this mine, 
by the falling-in of part of the roof while they were at work. The 
place being open to every one without restriction or regulations, each 
person had dug away the quantity he wanted, from that part where it 
was found of the best quality ; and no one appears to have reflected 
on the necessity, in such excavations especially where the rock is in 
parts of a loose nature, of leaving pillars at proper distances to support 
the roof. To this ignorance in the art of mining, those poor creatures 
VOL. II. L L 
