96 The Irish Naturalist. [ April, 



panied me to the caves. In the Marble Arch cave, which is a 

 favourite resort for tourists, I collected a few invertebrates 

 which, like those collected on the previous day, were species 

 which occur above ground. 



This cave is, I may here remark, in its upper part dry, the 

 river that has carved it out having found a passage on a lower 

 level, and appearing as a spring some distance in. Here I 

 took Porrhoma microphthalma, Brachydesmus superus, Tomoce- 

 rus t7ide7itiferus, and Clivijia fossor, a carabidous beetle. 



None of the other Florence Court caves were accessible 

 without Mr. Martel's exploring apparatus, so I had to defer 

 my visits to them till his arrival. 



On the i5tli Mr. and Mrs. Martel and I drove to the Arch 

 Spring, and Noon's Hole, bringing with us in a cart Mr. Martel's 

 copious equipment of cave-exploring apparatus. This 

 consisted of a canvas boat, some hundreds of feet of rope- 

 ladders, a light portable folding wooden ladder, ropes, axes, 

 compass, barometer, telephone, maps, &c. 



We first proceeded to Noon's Hole, which is a vertical shaft 

 or swallow-hole down which a stream precipitates itself. Mr. 

 Martel sounded the shaft with a lead- line and found the depth 

 to be 150 feet. The rope ladders were then got ready and Mr. 

 Martel began his descent ; he could not, however, descend 

 more than about 60 feet, as the falling water, which at the 

 time was unusually high, broke over the ladder and rendered 

 further progress impossible. The descent of this chasm 

 would be made possible if the stream could be for a time 

 deflected. 



We also explored Poolaneffaran, a pit formed partly by the 

 falling in of the roof of an underground river-bed. 



The streams traversing Noon's Hole and Poolaneffaran con- 

 verge to form the Arch spring, where they discharge them- 

 selves through a beautiful grotto, and form a waterfall. In 

 the Arch spring I found Meta Meriance. 



dn the i6th we visited the Marble Arch, bringing the same 

 equipment. Here we were met by Mr. Bowles and his son, 

 who accompanied us to the caves. Several streams, meeting 

 underground, flow out at the source, under the '* Marble 

 Arch," a beautiful natural archway, cut off from the cave. 



