From the forest came the multitude of sounds that told of strange birds and animals that were out on their nocturnal hunt for food.
Early in the morning the _safari_ was sent on with the guides while we remained to explore the cave.

It was an immense cavern, with an entrance hall, or foyer, about thirty feet high and a hundred feet in 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.