154 ^^ Irish Naturalist. ' Oct.-Nov., 



guides showing none of the usual compunction in disturbing 

 the remains, protesting that people who could frequent 

 such a place must have been " worse nor haythens " ; 113 

 bones were thus obtained, and carefully catalogued in the 

 paper. Bones of pig, sheep, lamb, goat, cow and calf 

 were also identified, but the fact that they were all found 

 near the entrance, and that immature bones were in a 

 considerable proportion, renders it probable that they 

 belonged to animals which had wandered or fallen into the 

 cave in comparatively recent times. Dr. Foot then enters 

 very fully into the question of the human remains, and 

 inclines to the view that they are of great antiquity, probably 

 representing the massacre recorded in the " Annals of the 

 Four Masters " in A.D. 928. 



Lastly, in 1875, Mr. Edward T. Hardman of the 

 Geological Survey read a paper on the cave before the 

 Royal Irish Academy (6), in which he records the occurrence 

 of further deposits of bones in the cave ; this paper is a 

 very valuable contribution to our knowledge of the cavern. 

 The well-known bone-bed is near the well at the extremity 

 of the " Rabbit Burrow " ; the new deposits discovered 

 by Mr. Hardman and lieut. Smith are beside the beautiful 

 statactitic pillar called the " Market Cross." In all cases 

 Mr. Hardman finds that the remains occur in layers of 

 silt, sand, and stalagmite ; in the newly-found deposit, 

 the human bones belonged largely to children and infants, 

 and were mixed with those of pig, and of sheep or goat. 

 Mr. Hardman believes that the bones and the stratified 

 material in which they occur were brought down by water 

 from higher chambers of the cave, the entrances to which 

 they now cover, and that the bones are at least as old as 

 the Danish invasion recorded by the Four Masters, perhaps 

 much older. Mr. Hardman's valuable paper is illustrated 

 by a plate on which appear a sketch of the " Market Cross," 

 and rough plan and sections of the cave — the first and 

 last attempt at mapping it. 



In the Geological Survey's " Explanatory Memoir on 

 the Geology of the Eeinster Coal-field" (7) published in 

 1881, Mr. Hardman briefly recapitulates the facts given in 

 his paper above-mentioned, and adds, on a larger scale, 



