Somewhere below in the bowels of the earth rumbled an underground
river with a noise like distant thunder. This cavernous roar far below
and the twittering whisper of the swallows far overhead, combined to
add much to the mysteriousness of these wonderful caves.
On the ground in the guano I picked up several eggs, unbroken. How
they could fall that distance and yet not get smashed is hard to
understand, unless it is that they fell in the soft guano on their
ends. We were told that when a man fell from the top he was smashed
literally into jelly. I also picked up a few birds which had been
stunned when flying against the rocks. This saved me from shooting any.
Spread out on the ground in the cave and also drying outside, raised
from the ground on stakes, were coil after coil of rattan ropes and
ladders used for collecting the nests. These always have to be new
each season, and are first carefully tested. The ladders are made
of well twisted strands of rattan with steps of strong, hard wood,
generally "bilian."
On our return to the village we bathed in a shady stream of clear
water, the banks of which I noted were composed chiefly of guano. In
the afternoon we started off in search of the upper eaves. After
a short, stiff climb amid natural rockeries of jagged limestone,
we passed under a rock archway or bridge, under which were perched
frail-looking raised native huts of the watchers. As we stood under
this curious archway we looked down a precipice on our left. It was
very steep at our feet, but from the far side it took the form of a
slanting shaft, which terminated in a little window or inlet into the
lower cave we had visited in the morning. In our ascent we had to climb
up very rough, steep ladders fastened against the rocky ledges. The
rocks were in many places gay with variegated plants, the most notable
being a very pretty-leafed begonia, covered with pink and silver spots,
the spots being half pink, half white. The natives with us seemed to
enjoy eating these leaves; they certainly looked tempting enough.
Another fine plant growing among these rocks was a climbing POTHOS,
with very dark green leaves, ornamented with a silver band across
each leaf, but the finest of all was a fine velvet-leafed climber,
veined with crimson, pink, or white (CISSUS sp.).
We at length came to the entrance of a long chain of eaves, through
which we passed, going down a very steep grade, and our guides had to
carry lights. After a climb down some steep rocks in semi-darkness,
we at length found ourselves in the largest cave of all, supposed to
be about five hundred and sixty feet in height.[14] It, too, had two or
three natural windows, through which the light penetrated.
