The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-04-05

a hoarse groan, which slowly died away and ended in shril whistle, and then all was silent as the grave.
 "I must confess that l was frightened more than I had ever been before. The. e was something uncanny about the whole phenomena, The rush cf wind which had eXtinguished the candles and the almost simultaneous shrieks and the walls as of some lost soul were cer- tainly not without explanation on nat ural ground, however supernatural and apparently unaccountabla they may have seemed.
 T shouted to my guide and requested him to light his candle and come with me, but he positively refused to enter the cave again. While lighting my candle I fancied l could hear the dis tant sound of running water far in the interior. I proceeded slowly in the di- rection of the sound, when I perceived a narrow Assure in the floor of the cave near the wall Yes, there was where the sound of water issued from. l could hear it distinctly. although it was many ! feet below the floor.
 Again there came swift air current and again I was in darkness, or l sup posed I was at first. But this proved not to be the case. As soon as my eyes became accustomed to the gloom, l mo- ticed a faint light from the roof of the cavern, some fifty feet above It was faint and evidently came from a crevice near the surface. While l was once more trying to secure a light sufficient to guide me back to the mouth of the cave another and more severe gust of wind blew out my light and from the direction of the last flickering of the candle I noticed that the air set in the direction of the Assure through which 1 could hear the running water. Again came a sound, this time greatly different from the first on &C., i count of my proximity to the cause, l and I could plainly discern the suction produced by a strong current of water running through an orifice, a sound similar to that produced by water or similar liquid passing through d fun nel Here, then, must be the explana- tion of the air currents and of the pe- culiar sounds I had heard. The sub terranean stream at regular intervals became choked up and then for time the force of the current would almost { cease. Then, for some unknown cause, it would flow out and thus cause the shrll whistling and gurglng sounds, accompanied by the inward rush of air from the mouth of the cave through the whirlpool suction of the water
 "The regular intermittent currents or air from without which passed through the vaulted cavern also caused the in- teror to be unusually dry: dusty, In fact upon the surface of the floor.
 After satisfying myself that I had discovered the source of the mysterious sounds, turned my attention to an eX- animation of the contents of the floor of the cave, which appeared to be of the consistency of ashes under ones feet. Going to a point near the entrance I thrust a long stick, I had carried with me to aid me in climbing down into the yielding mass to the depth of two or | three feet did this in several places, | and could not touch any bottom to the | deposit except within about ten feet of | the entrance.
 While making these tests I discover ed a pronounced smell of ammonia | With piece of rock I dug down in the massa distance of nearly two feet, and securing a quantity in a handkerchief took it to the entrance of the cave and carefully examined 1t. There was the same strong odor of ammonia In color it was an ashen gray. slightly tinged with yellow; this latter color seemed to prevail in small Jumps, which. when pressed between the thumb and fingers became reduced to r powder.
 ''In regard to the amount of this de- posit, whatever 1t may be- there must be hundreds of thousands of tons in this cavern alone. In some respects it diff fers materially from the deposits of found on Mona and Crab islands, adjacent to Porto Rico It cer- tainly contains animal substance min gled with lime. The cavern contains fully twenty acres of this material, the depth of which it was impossible to de- ternine, although in the interior of the cavern the deposit cannot be less tban fifteen feet deep, and 1t may be thirty or fifty feet
 The cave was doubtless at one time the nightly rendezvous of tens of thou sands of sea birds, which have long since become extinct, The preservation of the deposit has been largely due to the fact that the cave has been extraor- 1inariy dry throughout the period since the deposit was formed, and the essential elements. instead of having been bleached out have been retained to a large degree. The natives seldom approach the cavern. and it is known to ! hem as the cave of 'El Diablo. "--~ :, Post