11 
caves have any direct coiiiimmication but it has been suggested that a deep bole in 
the upper cave leads into the lower cave. 
The lower cave is known as Simud Itara, the upper cave as Siraud Puteh. 
Other names, well known and commonly used in conversation are applied to 
certain parts of the caves, usually lateral recesses or shafts leading to the top of 
the hill. The use of these names is at first very confusing as the natives emphasize 
the entity of such places and are reluctant, ]:irobably on account of collecting rights 
to admit that the smaller is part of the greater [ The best known of these second- 
ary names is Belongbulud w^hich is merely a shaft leading into Simud Puteh from 
the summit of Gomantong Hill. 
The entrance to the lower cave is at the foot of the hill near, and level with, 
the bank of a small stream. The large porch-like entrance opens into a spacious 
lofty chamber strongly reminiscent of a cathedral nave. 
Sufficient light is admitted through large holes in the domed roof to enable 
one to see without lamps. The main features about the lower cave are that certain 
smaller caves or depressions open into it on the left and that another, dark, 
unexplored, but apparently large, cave runs off from a point approximately opposite 
to the entrance. This subsidiary cave is said to be inhabited entirely by bats. 
The hrsfc part of the cave is about one hundred yards long. The highest point 
of the "nave" has been estimated at four hundred feet. The bat cave has been 
said to run back for two hundred yards : its entrance is about thirty yards across, 
All these measurements are proljal^ly only the roughest of approximations. 
The upper cave or Simitd Puteh lies above the lower cave. To reach its 
entrance which is a gap about fifty feet wide and thirty feet high it is necessary 
to retrace one's steps from the lower cave and climb the hill. 
The interior of the cave, away from the entrance, is intensely dark and lights 
are necessary. /. /^ j#e-r<^.^* it^^ 
Simud Puteh is a long, narrow, irregularly shaped cave^ culminating in a 
dome-shaj>ed chamber. Its length has been estimated at four hurulred and fifty 
yards and its height, not great near the entrance has, in the end chamber, been 
variously placed between 540 and 850 feet. Largo holes or shaf Ls enter the roof 
at the end of the cave one of which opens out on the actual summit of the hill. 
Kough sketch maps of the upper and lower caves were supplied by Mr. S. G, 
Holmes in a report to Government dated 8th Feb. 102;3, and much information 
of topographical interest concerning the small caves in the vicinity of Gomantong 
is contained in a report issued by the Conservator of Forests. 
Any detailed research carried out in the Gomantong caves whether it be in 
connection with the distribution or yearly census of nests or exploitation of the 
guano deposits or along any other channel would be imjieded by the total absence 
of reliable data and maps. 
A preliminary plan of the Gomantong caves would not be dilHcult to make. 
The attached sketch map prepared by Mr. and Mrs, Cedric Dover, under the 
auspices of the F. M. 8. Museums Department, re]>resentH the Batu Caves near 
Kuala Lumpur. There are no nests in these caves but 1 have coloured and added 
notes to the sketch on the supposition that the caves were inhabited by swiftlets. 
The system is offered as a suggestion to any ofhcer who may attempt the work 
in future. 
