国家地理:加里曼丹岛的地底洞天(7)

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In 1979, Eavis arrived in Borneo as part of a British expedition designed to study the rainforest and help the recently independent Malaysia understand the newly established Gunung Mulu National Park. Caving was still a relatively young sport, and Eavis and a team of four others were brought on only after expedition leaders realized that there were huge caves among the forest's many treasures.

1979年，艾维斯作为一个英国探险队的一员来到婆罗洲，该探险队旨在研究雨林，并让刚刚独立的马来西亚了解新建的姆鲁国家公园。洞穴探险仍是一个相对年轻的运动，在探险队长发现雨林的丰富宝藏之下还藏有多处巨大洞穴后，派来了艾维斯和其他四名队员。

Eavis and his friends had honed their skills back home, in Britain, where caves were commonly small and cold. Borneo's caves, opposite in almost every way, pushed Eavis and his companions into another dimension.

艾维斯和他的朋友们回到家乡锤炼技能。英国的洞穴一般都是又小又冷，而婆罗洲的洞穴与英国的洞穴几乎在每一点上都大相径庭，这为艾维斯和他的同伴们打开了另一个世界。

With their first discovery they set their record for size: It was called Deer Cave, or Gua Rusa, and its entrance was so enormous—nearly 500 feet high—that the sun reached deep inside and fresh air followed, creating a strange and wonderful habitat in the seam between daylight and darkness. A mammoth colony of bats clung to the cavern's roof, while on the floor thick piles of guano teemed with cockroaches, crabs, worms, and hosts of specialized microbes.

他们的首个发现就创下了他们去到洞穴的面积记录，这个洞穴叫做鹿洞，也叫Gua Rusa，入口很宽--有近500英尺高--阳光可以照到底下深处，里面还可以呼吸到新鲜空气，在日光与黑暗之间的缝隙中形成了一个奇妙的栖息地。巨大的蝙蝠群紧紧地贴在洞穴的顶部，而地上堆积了厚厚的海鸟粪，上面有许多蟑螂、螃蟹、蠕虫，还有特定微生物的宿主。