[ 57 ] 

 SOME NOTES ON THE IRISH CAVES. 



BY R. F. SCHARFF, PH.D. 



Mr. Carpf;ntfr's article in last month's Irish Naturalist, on 

 the animals found in the Mitchelstown Cave, is one of the 

 most interesting, and at the same time one of the most 

 valuable contributions which has been published in this 

 periodical. I fully agree with his remarks as to the desira- 

 bility of further investigating the Irish caves. A few of them 

 have been entered with a view to the discovery of bats, — others 

 have been examined by archaeologists, but hardly any of them 

 have been systematically worked. 



Mr. Carpenter's interest in the researches would be chiefly 

 directed towards finding the living creatures which are hidden 

 in the dark recesses of the caves, but of equal if not greater 

 importance are the remains of extinct animals, which may be 

 buried there. When we consider the vast amount of w^ork 

 wliich has been accomplished in that direction by Prof. Boyd 

 Dawkins in England, it seems surprising how little has been 

 attempted in Ireland. The late Prof. I,eith Adams directed 

 his attention to one or two caves in the South of Ireland, and 

 in the exploration of the Bally namintra Cave he was joined 

 by Messrs. Kinahan and Ussher. Their united labours were 

 crowned with great success, but the number of extinct 

 mammals hitherto obtained in Irish caves remains surpris- 

 ingly small, when we compare them with those discovered in 

 England and the South of Wales. Although a thorough 

 exploration of caves is a somewhat costly undertaking, I 

 venture to hope that a commencement will soon be made, as 

 it is probable that it would lead to very important discoveries 

 and additions to our extinct fauna. 



As a preliminary towards this exploration, I think we 

 should obtain a complete list of all the Irish caves, with their 

 exact localities and approximate dimensions. I have made a 

 few notes on the position of some of the caves, and with the 

 kind assistance of Dr. Wright I discovered records of several 

 additional ones, but I feel sure that a very much larger 

 number of them exist in Ireland. I therefore append a map 

 on which all the caves known to me are marked, cliiefl}^ with 

 a view of eliciting further information from country corres- 

 pondents who may happen to read this note. I also add to 

 the number referring to any particular cave a list of the 



