192 The Irish Naturalist. November, 



the sub -aerial denudation of the friable micaceous sand- 

 stones. Many of these masses of conglomerate have a 

 length of seven feet with a breadth of two feet, and on 

 looking down into the crevices and hollows of this tumbled 

 mass large numbers of shells are to be seen — the shells also 

 occurring in two openings in the face of the cliff itself. The 

 outstanding facts about this shell deposit are — the usual 

 beach sand and gravel are both completely absent ; the shells 

 are not wave -rolled ; the species present are all edible ; 

 and the Common Limpet {Patella vulgaris) forms by far 

 the largest proportion of the shells present. The shells 

 in no way recall those obtained from raised beaches ; in 

 most cases they are entire, and generally they are 

 in the soft floury condition of shells long exposed to the 

 effects of the atmosphere. The number of species (as given 

 by Messrs. Dixon and Gordon they only come to eight) 

 bears no comparison to the 30 to 60 species of a raised 

 beach, and when the Limpet is present in the proportion 

 of at least 200 to every individual of all the other species 

 we can hardh^ doubt that we are dealing with a rock-shelter 

 of prehistoric man. This view is confirmed by the con- 

 dition of the openings in the face of the cliff itself. The 

 floor of the first (east), on being worked over with a hammer, 

 was found to consist of the heavy black dirt so characteristic 

 of fire-places in kitchen-middens. No charcoal was found, 

 but a water-rounded stone was turned up. This stone 

 had been blackened by exposure to fire, and on one side 

 had been fractured so that the rounded surface is abruptly 

 truncated by a rough surface, which is also blackened by 

 fire. Many of the shells show signs of having been in the 

 fire. The second opening, though smaller than the first, 

 has its floor composed of the same type of heavy black 

 dirt, and was apparently also a fire-place. Scores of Limpets 

 are stowed away at the back of both of these openings, 

 but as they differ in no way from the hundreds of Limpets 

 lying about under the talus, too much importance need 

 not be given to their position. The site was probably 

 chosen on account of the vast number of Limpets to be 

 obtained from the adjoining coast, where at the present 



