Caves at Sungei Batu in Selangor
This 1879 short note by D. D. Daly, read at a meeting of the Society on 7 April 1879, describes the discovery and exploration of a series of limestone caves near Kwala Lumpor in the Native State of Selangor, first located by Mr. Syers, Superintendent of Police, during a hunting excursion (p. 116).
The account details a party’s journey from Klang up the Klang River to Damansara and on to Kwala Lumpor, then nine miles north to a limestone hill approximately 400 feet high (p. 116). Three caves are described: “Gua Lambong” (the swinging cave), a grand vaulted cavern with a Gothic-dome appearance, 50–70 feet high, containing thousands of bats and deposits of bat guano 3–6 feet deep; “Gua Belah” (the divided cave), lower in height but with fantastical limestone formations and Sakei charcoal drawings on the walls; and “Gua Lada” (the pepper cave), 90 yards long with side corridors, where stalactites and stalagmites have joined into columns and crystalline deposits are more perfect than in the first cave (pp. 117–118). Daly notes the absence of fossils or shells, concluding that the sea never reached the hill, and observes the rich surrounding vegetation including durian, rambutan, and mangosteen trees, as well as wild cattle and elephants in the area (p. 119).