298 
IN AFRICA 
length. Along the inner edge were the crumbling 
remains of little mud and wattle huts that had been 
occupied by people a long time before. Beyond 
this great entrance hall were passages that led into 
other vast, echoing caverns with domes like those of 
a cathedral. 
Countless thousands of bats darted about us as 
our voices broke the silence of ages, and in places 
the deposits of bats were two or three feet deep. 
It staggered one’s senses to think how long these 
creatures had dwelt within the labyrinth of caverns 
and passageways. 
We explored the cave for a quarter of a mile or 
so, stumbling, stooping, climbing, and sliding down 
precipitous slopes. Far off in the darkness sounded 
the steady drip, drip, drip of water, and several 
times our progress was stopped by black lakes into 
which a tossed stone would tell of depths that might 
be almost bottomless. We fired our shotguns and 
the loosened dirt and rocks and the thunder of thou¬ 
sands of bats’ wings were enough to terrify the 
senses. 
There is no telling how many centuries or ages 
these caverns have stood as they stand to-day. 
Doubtless the wild tribes of the mountain have oc¬ 
cupied them for thousands of years, and doubtless 
a thousand years from now the descendants of these 
tribes of people and bats will still be there in the 
cisternlike caverns with the broad fan of sparkling 
water spreading like a beautiful curtain across the 
great archway of an entrance. 
