f 3 
o 
Idarch 18, 1955^ Uuro Preto» How we made an atteiif^t to get 
\ 
' . 
tarted for some bat caves that hr* Dias had been told about beyond the 
town up the iriountains ide , and he promised that we should see AQ.ua Limpa 
on our my back* We s tainted in another direction, stead il^^ cliiTi)ing, and 
I took several view of Itacolumi^ with and without mist around it, and with 
the town sprawling down into the valley below it* We soon left the good 
streets and struck up into the mountain on a narrow mulepath. The girls 
got tired and left us very quickly, as they saw a storm coming up, so they 
said later# An abandoned gold-mining: tunnel contained sor:ie bats and Dr* 
Dias and I Y;ent in with his one flashlight# It gives an indescribably queer 
sensation to follow 10 feet behind a little dancing disk of light into utter 
blackness, the mils on each side sliiry to the touch, the drip-drip of 
water from every ledge, soLje of it hitting the back of your neck, the floor 
uneven and slippery, your feet feeling the way among boulders yon cannot 
see, and trying to avoid the nuraerous holes, your head sometimes striking 
the roof wiiere it s uddenly drops, said every effort concentrated on trying 
not to get too far beMnd the light* About a hundred feet in, the tunnel 
heightened and Dr* Dias said a bat was flying about, but v/e did not see it 
again when we had tal:en our places ready to hit at it with our triiTHied tree- 
branches as it came by. A little farther on the tunnel led to the left and 
dipped down, and its floor was corered by water, and Dr. Dias concluded that 
it would be very dangerous to go in an^^ fe^rther , so Y/e went back towards the 
entrance* Boim fbesh bat faces” on the mil did-not 'show 'any bee ties -1^^^^ 
thore me got in Lagoa Santos at La jpir\ke^ cave* At the entrance a frog 
was hopping, and Dr. Dias cauglit it# Joachim later said it ms Tlyopa 
miliar jus * We now climbed agaia, and a ne£^ boy and a colored man who 
