yment to the Government of a royalty
of $7,500 per annum, which is in addition to the export duty at the rate
of 10% _ad valorem_ paid by the Chinese exporters.

The swifts and bats--the latter about the size of the ordinary English
bat--avail themselves of the shelter afforded by the caves without
incommoding one another, for, by a sort of Box and Cox arrangement, the
former occupy the caves during the night and the latter by day.

Standing at the Simud Putih entrance about 5 P. M., the visitor will
suddenly hear a whirring sound from below, which is caused by the
myriads of bats issuing, for their nocturnal banquet, from the Simud
Itam caves, through the wide open space that has been described. They
come out in a regularly ascending continuous spiral or corkscrew coil,
revolving from left to right in a very rapid and regular manner. When
the top of the spiral coil reaches a certain height, a colony of bats
breaks off, and continuing to revolve in a well kept ring from left to
right gradually ascends higher and higher, until all of a sudden the
whole detachment dashes off in the direction of the sea, towards the
mangrove swamps and the _nipas_. Sometimes these detached colonies
reverse the direction of their revolutions after leaving the main body,
and, instead of from left to right, revolve from right to left. Some of
them continue for a long time revolving in a circle, and attain a great
height before darting off in quest of food, while others make up their
minds more expeditiously, after a few revolutions. Amongst the bats,
three white ones were, on the occasion of my visit, very conspicuous,
and our followers styled them the Raja, his wife and child. Hawks and
sea-eagles are quickly attracted to the spot, but only hover on the
outskirts of the revolving coil, occasionally snapping up a prize. I
also noticed several hornbills, but they appeared to have been only
attracted by curiosity. Mr. BAMPFYLDE informed me that, on a previous
visit, he had seen a large green snake settled on an overhanging branch
near which the bats passed and that occasionally he managed to secure a
victim. I timed the bats and found that they took almost exactly fifty
minutes to come out of the caves, a thick stream of them issuing all
that time and at a great pace, and the reader can endeavour to form for
himself some idea of their vast numbers. They had all got out by ten
minutes to six in the evening, and at about six o'clock the swifts be