The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1877-11-18
THE BATS or TEXAS,
UNTOLD WEALTH DISCOVERED IN THE CAVES
WHERE THEY DWELL.
Galveston News.

| WHERE THEY DWELL.
| Galveston News.
Doubt is expressed by some newspaper
elsewhere with respect to the great cavel
of Texas, from which clouds of bats emerge
at twilight until they spread like the smoke
from the bottle in the Arabian tale, and
make it a wonder how snch an apparently
| boundlees phenomenon could have come
from such limited hiding place. These
stories are repeated and their truth insisted
| on by all who have Visited these caves.
Something more than shadows. however, it
| fs expected, will result from these subter-
| rsnean wopders. The last report of the
United States Department of Agriculture
furnishes some information regarding the
anaIyse of samples of guano sent from
some of the Texas hat caves to Washing
ton for assay. Mr.. r. E. Talbot, George
town, Williamson county, sent samples of
deposit, with the following statement:
] enclose you q sample from the cave of Will
liam X. Foster, two and half miles from
Georgetown. The amonpt-ef the deposits is
large, supposed to be hundreds Of tons. Many
apartments of the cave are filed to the mouth,
cave is, or the amount of g1ano in 1T. For o
space of about 100 yards long by 20 yards
wide, near the mouth, 1t is from six to ten feet
deep.
Mr.. II. Weir, San Antonio, Texas writes: {:
sent you by express, Dot. 16, one can of bat
kuaHO, COHb&fHfDR 8bOHt ten pOuhde, tBRSH
from my cave, about twenty miles north of
this city. There is q large deposit in this cave
say IS 600 or 90 600 tons, and yearly increasiug
l shonld be pleased to get your analysis Of
this sample, and will cheerfuliy give you any
further Information you may desire with re-
gard to this cave, or others in this section.
Mr.. J. A. V. Pae, writes from Bandera,
Texas:
In reply to circular of May q, 1875: have
the honor to state that there is q bat Gave ait
southwest from Bandera, on q survey belong
ing to Joseph Ney. During the war large
quantities of saltpetre were manufactured
from it for time, when it was fred accident
ly or designedly. It is now Q mass of ashes,
from three to Eve feet in depth, as far as it has
been explored-a distance of about 400 yards.
The width of the cave is from seven TO thirty
feet.
In speaking of the value of such deposits
for fertillzing purposes, the report Gays:
Their physical condition when air dried, 10
excellent, both for handling and for applioa-
tion to the soil, and the Analyses given above
represents very fairly the average composition
of the material. which may be valued at from
$15 to $50 per ton, reckoning upon the basis
for determi nation of the value for fertilizers
adopted by Dr.. Charles A. Goessmau, inspector
his report of 1876 These values compare favor
ably with those of the fish products largely
manufactured in New Eng land, and even with
Peruvian guano.
A traveller who lately visited one OF
these caves writes
Our object point was the great bat cave some
ten miles east of the little town of Selma
place seldom visited by Northern tourists.
When within less than 9 mile of the cave,
which Is situated on the crest of high bluff,
that may be called irregular table land,
General Ord directed my attention to an i'm
menee dark shadow in the horizon, extending
from the ground line high up in the heavens.
1t had all the appearance of q strong volume
of smoke issuipg from the funnel of some
gigantic ocean steamer. " 1t looks like smoke"
said the General, "but it is simply cloud of
bats Issuing from the cave" On approaching
nearer coold distinctly make out the flying
vermip, which were truly thicker than the
densest swarm of bees I have ever seen, and
there appeared to be n end to them. We soon
reached the cave, which dips Ito tds brambty
gorge, and from the capacous month, shaped
like the half choked arch OF a bridge, we could
SEQ the bats flying oot in tens of thousands,
the column crossing deeper every second. The
cave is gloomy as the realms of Pluto, having
gentle decline of some hundreds of feet, the
roof being quite lofty, and the floor covered to
Bats, as yon know, do not perch siDgly, but
bees do when in swarm. The mperature of
the cave is suficiently low to prevent them
from becoming heated, and how they manage
to support the enormous weight of their own
masses is question which only practical
naturalsts can solve. They manage to do it,
though, without the slightest apparent dis
comfort. And there cannot, at moderate COM
putation, be less than thirty millions Of bats
in these enormous caves,