Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-12-28
BAT CAVES OF TEXAS.
Biggest in the World and Inhabited
by Millions of Fiittermice.


From the New York sun.
The New York man knocked the ashes
from his cigar, rolled it in his fingers and
examined the fire end with that bored eX-
preston which means, when are you go
ing to stop?"
The man from Texas had the floor
"Out in my state" he said. where lime
stone is the formation, or country rock as
the miners say, there are hundreds Of
caves, little caves and big caves. Some only
about as big as a meeting house and others
so big they never have found the enc Of
EN-. know one cave so big that 4 gang
Of explorers spent three days in there and
came out as wise as they went in, 50 tar
as its boundaries were concerned.
Amy staIactites and that sort of thing IN
there?'' asked the New Yorker.
NO, sir; nothing but bats, guanc and
daddy long legs. Bats by the millions and
tens of millions it looks like, ali of EN-
hanging to the roof and walls waiting for
night to come on so as they can fly out and
l.get a square meal of mosquitoes. AId l
never could see how they can tell when
night comes outside-for it's always pitch
dark inSide-unieSS maybe, it is a change
in the air that notifies EN-. The savin
grace of that country In summer is that the
air gets cool when the sun quits shinn' .
1t is shutdown.
Anyhow, long about sundown, Il you
happen to be in the neighbOrhood of one OF
these big caves, you'll see all these bats
coming out L feed. For maybe an hour ON
end they II pour out of the mouth Of that
cave in solid black cloud. 1t gives Iou a
queer sort of feelin' to watch en- suggest
in Internal regions and that sort or thing.
You'd think that many bats d overstock
the aerial range, so to speak, but there
seems to be plenty of insects for en-. aud
reckon the Lord provides for the bats same
as he does for the sparrows. BY 1aybreak
they seem to have had all the food and en-
ercise they want and back they so into
their cave and hang 'emselves up on the
wall again. It's a great sight TO watch
these flights
You sp ile of guanos' said the New York
man. Isn't that good for something
THE finest fertilizer- n the lana, replied
the Texas man. at runs we'll in ammonia
and, Of course, that makes it good plant
food In some Of these caves the stuff lies
from ten to twenty and thirty feet deep On
the floor. Transportation is the trouble
Texas is the land of magnificent distances
and the railroads are mostly Tong way
from the caves. To sack and haul The
guano hundred miles or to the railroad
makes profits minus quantity. me day
the railroads II get down in that region and
some enterprisin' fellow'l make his pile out
Of that fertilizer.
"Oh, yes, they've been known about for
years. Look on United States geological
survey map of that region and you'll see
.bat-caves' marked all about on it. They're
no new thing; probably thousands of years
old. Judging by the deposits of guano, the
bats must have chased mosquitoes there
long before the Indians began chippin' fints
for spikes to chase buffalo with
Some of the caves are vacant now
Thoughtless COW punchers or like fired 'era
to smoke the bats out, just for fun. Tons
of fine guano and swarms of bats have
been destroyed that way. Smoked out once
a cave stays vacant, the bats don't seem
to like the risk of going back again.
"And the daddy long legs! You Just
oughter see 'em in those caves! They hang
in punches as big your head. all tangled
up together till 1t looks like they'd never
under bunch of EN-. Holy smoke. the
move they get emf