1904. Notes. 3T 



GEOLOGY. 



Cave Exploration in Co. Clare. 



At the Southport meeting of the British Association an interesting 

 account of the exploration by the Irish Cave Committee of the Edenvale 

 Caves, Co. Clare, was given by Mr. R. J. Ussher. He stated that in 

 April, 1902, Dr. Scharff and he visited some caves in the Co. Clare, and 

 decided to explore two at Edenvale, near Ennis, which adjoined each 

 other, and proved to be connected. Another system of connected caves 

 was subsequently explored there, and both -groups of cavities were 

 found to be prolific in remains of animals now extinct in Ireland, and in 

 human relics of different periods. Edenvale House stands on a ridge of 

 Carboniferous limestone, which forms the western side of a deeply 

 cleft anticlinal ;' in the'chasm thus formed lies a lake of relatively great 

 depth, which is surrounded by a steep declivity on all sides but one. 

 The first two cavities referred to, which have been named the Alice and 

 the Gwendoline caves, open in a low escarpment on the western side of 

 the PMenvale ridge. Their aspect is southerly. 



The Alice cave, after running a straight course for eighty feet, was 

 found to terminate in an upward opening that had been filled in with 

 earth and stones, and contained material resembling that found in 

 kitchen middens. At forty feet from the mouth of this cave a gallery 

 branched off, and connected it with the Gwendoline cave on a lower 

 level. At fifteen feet from the mouth of the Alice cave a projection in 

 the rocky wall was worn smooth, as if by the constant rubbing of 

 creatures which had passed in and out. In most parts of these caves 

 two strata were distinguishable: — 



ist and upper. — Brown earth, occasionally containing calcareous 

 tufa. In this stratum was found much charcoal, bones of man and 

 domestic animals in a fragmentary state, and also objects of human 

 art of various descriptions — a bone pin or awl, an amber bead, a 

 bracelet of bronze, and another of gold. 



2nd.— A lower stratum composed of clay, generally of a yellow- 

 ochre tint, but sometimes purplish. 

 Bones and teeth of Reindeer and Bear were found chiefly in the latter 

 stratum, and the ursine remains indicated that they belonged to indi- 

 viduals of great size. 



Having removed the fossiliferous deposits of the above caves, opera- 

 tions were commenced at the orifice of the second group, opening in 

 the cliff-face under Edenvale House overlooking the lake. This cave 

 runs fifty feet into the rock, but is traversed by a series of galleries, some 

 of which are wide and confluent. One of these galleries was excavated 

 for a distance of sixty feet, and it was found to be crossed by another 

 cave that led out to the cliff, but whose orifice is blocked. 



This system of caves is so extensive and complex that it was named 

 the Catacombs. It has proved still more fruitful than the former 

 caves in relics of man and of extinct animals. Human bones were 

 frequent, and in one place an assemblage of these included a cranium, 



