NOTES ON IRISH NATURAL HISTORY. 123 



It will I think be seen from this description, imperfect as I 

 acknowledge it to be, that the cave of Coolnagarranroe is not, 

 as generally supposed, a single opening of ascertained size 

 and figure, but more resembles in its ramifications a vast 

 mine, in which large excavations have occasionally been 

 made, and of which no less than thirteen or fourteen obvious 

 openings yet remain to be explored, offering a fine field, not 

 merely for adventure but for theory, for who shall say what 

 wonders are yet undiscovered. I was perhaps rather lazy af- 

 ter slipping about for seven or eight hours on the soft and 

 slimy clay, and little inclined to prosecute further researches 

 at the time, but I have often since regretted that I did not 

 stimulate Gorman to further exertions while I was present, 

 for he receives such a revenue from the fleecing of his present 

 visitors, that he will never take the trouble by himself to make 

 more discoveries. It is strange that those who manage the 

 estate on behalf of the proprietor do not, in some way, restrain 

 the impositions of this greedy man, for the cave being no part 

 of his taking, he can only by courtesy be allowed the pecu- 

 niary advantage of showing it. 



I have not in this rapid sketch noticed a tenth part of the 

 curious forms of spar to which my attention was called ; 

 among these the " Churn, " the " Angel's Head," the " Ava- 

 lanche, " the " Lord Chancellor's Wig, " and " Aladdin's 

 Lamp," struck me as remarkably beautiful ; the last is a pen- 

 dant and somewhat cylindrical sheet of spar, so thin that the 

 light of a candle is scarcely decreased by being placed inside 

 it. Perhaps however the most magnificent mass of spar, ei- 

 ther here, or known in the world, is that called the " Queen's 

 Mantle." Its appearance is somewhat similar to that which 

 might be produced by throwing a dozen shawls carelessly 

 over a pole suspended horizontally, their folds being allowed 

 to arrange themselves at random, as they hung from the pole 

 in a confused mass ; the height of this mass is twenty or 

 twenty-five feet, and the substance so thin as to show very 

 clearly the flame of a candle held behind it : its extremities 

 do not quite reach the floor. Owing to the fi-equent disturb- 

 ance from handling which this and all the most remarkable 

 objects are constantly undergoing from visitors, most of whom 

 purchase the right of chipping off and carrying away w^hat 

 they please, it is much to be feared that the cave will even- 

 tually be robbed of a great portion of its present beauty. 



I did not leave the cave without examining the clay and 

 sand deposited in cavities under the stalagmitic incrustations 

 of the floor, in the hope of finding the bones of extinct ani- 

 mals ; but it was to no puqiose, and I lenvned from Gorman 



