Rokerotes eatin aun) As Tower myself int the eave, muddy rope squishes through my deseending rack and spills ‘gummy little mounds of slime down the front of ry uylon suit. Three meters farther dovn-rope, the slanting wall veers into onartow crack. torrent of ‘water blasts my face with iey spray and powerwashes _my sit sparing lean, “OKI my frend Brom Gissherg shouts up from the ‘eave passage below, "You've atthe next station.” Hook over ata red-and-white, polka-tted plastic ribbon that ron bs tied to tiny knob of rockon the cave wall. The heavy stream of water stil splashes off ry helmet, und the flame of the earbide lantern on the helmet sputers and hisses hencath the dchuge. A trickle of water finds its way down the neck of my suit, [shiver as Thold the end ofa tape measure up tothe ibbon, while dangling on-rope, to measure the distance from the ribbon down tothe neat station ron has picked, “On tation!" Ihave to yell above the nose ofthe waterfall for Eron to hear me. The walls squceze around me ike a limestone coffin, Every breath produces a cloud of fog that makes it dificult to see. Bron and I ae eeating map ofthis vertical eave on Hoeeta Island, Alaska. ‘This cave ane more than sx hundred thes like inthe Tongass: National Forest in sonthenst Alaska ate part of a program to map all ‘the caves inthe region.‘These mapping expeditions were started in 1987 bby Kevin and Carlene alld. Specially irainod cavers suchas Eton and I travel in loat planes helicopters, wl boats to the scattered islands of southeast Alaska. These explorers spend a mouth each summer ‘mapping the caves, Rain Forest In this sin forest the islands pet swore than one hundred inches of rain yearly. Over thousands of years, imter has eased acid from the soil down into the eracks and erevies of theTimestone bedrock, Aisclving the rok and widening the fractures into the eaves we know today. ‘These caves can be dangerous. Most of them are squfrmy Hite holes that go stright down foe hundreds of meters. Lose rocks and eold temperatures are constant threats. Im some eaves there are harizontal passages where cavers have fornd human-made tools, handwoven, cedar baskels, ancient drawings on the walls, and ‘any, many animal bones, lide the dry, protected areas ofthe eaves, some ofthese objeets have been preserved for thousands of years ‘When cavers find something that doesnot naturally occur in a cave, they note its loeation and inform the Forest Service oftheir discovery. 8 this information to learn more bout the people and ‘animals who once lived in the area, ists use‘A onan rom AMystery Some ofthese diseoveres may help change our {ideas about one of the great mysteries of selene: Hove did the ist Americans and the ancestors of “American Indians come t ive on these continents? For many years scientists have thought that the fest people to migrate ito the Americas did so 7 foot. Daring the Tee Aye (hich ended about ten thousand years ago), an elght-hundred-ailewidestrip of land called the ering Land ridge onceted Alaska {to Russia, Many scientists think people from Asia ‘became the frst Americans by following large herds ‘of animals across ths land bridge and south through ‘Canada ana the Unite States. ‘Some of th caves hold secrets {from the past, ‘But theres another possibilty. Maybe people came ‘rom Asia in small boats, skipping from one island to another slong the coast. The Caves’ Clues. ‘The sland caves hold clues about those times Inside the eaves, Dr. Timothy Heaton ofthe University of South Dakota has found the bones of ‘many kinds of animals that are now extinct from ‘he area. He discovered thatthe rovin bea, ringed seal, arctic fox, red fos, land otter, and others lived on these islands during the last yeas of the Ie Age, when glaciers were thought to have covered al of Alaska, inciting the islands, But the fans must have been free from ice. Otherwise, these animals could not have survived, And ice-free stands mean ‘the way wns clear for people tv move along the coast. Ite Aka 78 In July 1996, Dr. Heaton led a dig ina small cave on Prince of Wales Island. He discovered the oldest human skeletal remains ever recovered in Alaska. The bones were dated at about 9,200 years ago, Later, at the same cave, Dr. E. James Dixon of the Denver Museum of Natural History discovered a campsite of the same age. These scientists have shown that humans were living on the southern coast of Alaska at the end of the Ice Age. The idea that the first Americans came on foot is still alive, but now there is another reasonable idea: they might have come along the coast by boat. And that is why many cavers return to southeast Alaska each year. Mapping a cave is not just a chance to visit some of the last unexplored regions of our planet. It is also a chance to help discover new information about how animals and humans migrated into the Americas, TH Inside Alaska