WD2989

View of a Cave, Karangbolong, Java. 1815

Probably by J. Knops

Inscribed on front in pencil in the hand of Captain G.P. Baker: ‘Sketch of the S. side of Carang Bolong or the Hole in the Rock. Buglen Dist: Java Augt 1815’.

Pencil and water-colour; 43.3 by 54 cm.

Note: The drawing depicts one of the birds'-nest caverns on the southern side of Karangbolong, and may in fact be the most important of them, namely Gua Nogosari, which traditionally was the first cave visited at the beginning of each of the three collecting seasons in April, August, and December. The descent to the birds'-nest caves, which were situated at the bottom of a steep range of cliffs partly covered by the sea, was particularly hazardous, as the American naturalist Dr. Thomas Horsfield noted when he visited Karangbolong in 1814: 'The descent to the external aperture is performed on a ladder of Rattan, resembling in some degree the Shrouds of a ship, attached to a rock, tree, or other fixed substance from which it depends perpendicularly. Although the length is in several instances very considerable, the descent and the return, even to a person carrying a load, is considered a trifling enterprise in comparison with the gathering of the nests from the sides of a cave: for this purpose bridges, often of considerable length, are constructed of the entire trunks of Bambu, which are placed together longitudinally and transversely, and fastened to each other by rattans; a support to the hand of the collector is afforded by a separate rattan, of a large size, extended parallel to the bridge, about half a man's height, and answering to the railing commonly employed as a support across a narrow or difficult passage. These bridges are attached to the projecting Stones of the Cavern, and their judicious regulation and distribution is one of the most important and hazardous duties of the office of a Tukan [collector]. If a collector misses his hold, or if the bridge which he traverses separates or breaks, he is inevitably lost. No exertion of his fellows can save him; if in his fall he should escape the sides of the cave, the violent agitation of the ocean at the bottom would infallibly dash him against the rocks.'