FIGHT WITH BATS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXVI, Issue 74, 31 March 1892, Page 4

FIGHT WITH BATS.

Near Rockcastle river is a famous group of wild, rocky, pine covered hills, locally known as Round Stone Knobs. Somo little tirno ago Dr. J. J. Kite, a prominent young dentist, wont with dog and gun into that locality to shoot quail s £and for a time he had excellent sport. About noon, however a thunderstorm camo up and he entered a deep, rocky gorge witb tbo bopo of finding shelter from tbo menacing elements. Seeing an aperture in tbo cliff on hia left ho entered it, and was surprised to find himself in a largo winding gallory witb steep anil craggy walls on either side and ■with a roof that rapidly ascended to a considerable height, About twenty-five feet from tho ontranco was an object which arrested bis attention. It was a gigantic boulder, oblong in shape and weighing hundreds of tons, lying in an oblique position on a high jutting ledge, with its huge crest upreared awfully into a gap in tho cavorn's roof. It looked as though a slight shock or the touch of a meddlesome band might displace it and cause it to conio crashing down. Indeed it waa one of those frightful death traps of nature, grim and sinister, sometimes found in subterranean passages or upon jagged precipices. Dr. Kite is of an adventurous disposition ; also ho is a naturalist and geologist ot no small roputo. Tho novelty and excitement felt in penetrating tho unexplored, so fascinating to daring spirits, allured and emboldened him. Believing that ho should make some interesting discoveries ho advanced resolutely into the cavern. As bo did so bis faithful dog suddenly curled its tail between its legs and made a speedy exit. At tho somo time tho doctor saw two fiery eyes glaring from a dark comer. ATTACKED BY BATS. Hastily raising his gun, ho took deliberate aim and let go both barrels simultaneously, Ho never knew what tbe animal was or what had become of it, for the infernal din that bellowed and rebellowed through tho cavern was followed by an awful crash, suffocating columns of dust and dense darkness, and he was thrown violently forward and almost buried beneath masses of falling sand. He scrambled to his foot again, bleeding and gasping for breath. Terror struck and appalled, he realised that tho huge boulder above had been precipitated into the passage, completely blocking the corridor, and shutting him, like tbo doors of a ponderous tomb, for over from tho light. He saw no way of escape. A Plutonian darkneßs enveloped him. Moreover, a vast tri be oi; bats, [.disturbed by the detonation oi! his gun and the shifting sound, began to swarm along the passage, many of them alighting on his person. They were of remarkable size aud fierceness and seemed disposed to attack him. So vicious did they become that be was forced lo light them off by swift movements of bis hands. Thoy swept forward in enormous ilocks, as if to escape, and that quarter of tho cavern was quickly alive with them. Stunned and only partly aroused from their stupor, thousands precipitated themselves against tbe jutting rocks and fell upon the fioor dead or flapping awkwardly about in their wounded agony. They swarmed on the doctor's back and neck like huge bees. They dashed against his face and clung to his clothes, his air and his beard, and their whirling wings, beilowslike, whirled tbo dry dust of centuries about in clouds, grievously irritating the hunter's already exhausted lungs. SET EIRE TO HIS COAT. Threatened with suffocation, be increased the activity of his movements. He struck savagely and hurled hundreds of tho squeaking harpies upon the earth and trampled them under bis feet. Tho cavern's rocky bottom becamo so slippery with the blood and scattered entrails of mangled baths that he could scarcely keep bis footing. That he should preserve his equanimity under such torture is wonderful, but that he did is manifest from what now transpired. Shaking off his fierce tormentors for a moment ho pulled off his coat and pouring over it tho combustible contents of a whisky bottle which he. carried in hia hip pocket, ho ignited it with a match, and as it blazed up ho began to whirl it, a circle of hissing flame and pungent smoke, about his head. The effect was magical. The bats, unable to bear tho light and the fumes, spread thoir wings and began to precipitate flight to other parts of tho cave. Surrounded by panic stricken bats, even under tho spectral light of tho torch, Kite presented the appearance of something >nhuman, ghoulish, demoniacal. Issuing from the pockets of his burning coat could be heard the sound of bursting shells, which mingled strangely with his unearthly cries. Yelling and rushing from side to side of tho cavern) his hair tumbled over his forehead in tangled masses and his face distorted with f ury and despair, he whisked the fiery brand about, scaring, scorching, and burning many alivo, until tho vast army of horrid creaturea had been driven back into further recesses of tbo underground chamber. HARD WORK FOR LIRERIIY. Nearly exhausted, his clothes and body wet with sweat and blood, ho began to consider the possibility of escape from his prison house. it! any avenue of escape over tho stupendous boulder still oxisted, which waa uncertain, it would, havo been madness to attempt to scale it in the deep, reigning darkness. He therefore abandoned a hopeless idea, and sought to find some vulnerable point at tho side of tho seemingly impassable stone barrier. By tho light of a sickly blazo which played over tho smoking remnant of his still burning vestment, he picked up his gun and thrust the barrels into the crumbling earth and stone at one siele of the huge rock, The mass yielded by^U|ceM*^i^',his oxertions, and ments of rock. Hope never forsook him, anel after seven hours of incessant labour, during which the work of a Titan was performed, be succeeded in making an opening large enough for his body, and through this holo he squeezed himsolf. In his bleeding* and blistered hand he held the battered remains of a gun, and just as the cold but friondly moon arose Tbe hind the tall pines on the opposite cliff he passed out, pale, haggard, and grimy, into the chilly night.«rOor. Omcirtati Uomimrcicu !i...,;i-.w.. „