g8 The Irish Naturalist. [ April, 



Although no opening is known except the artificial one by 

 which we entered, the presence of a number of specimens 

 of an above-ground staphylinid beetle, Ancyrophorus omalinus, 

 all dead, and floating on the surface of another small pool of 

 water (about eight or ten feet in diameter and a foot deep) 

 points to the fact that water has access from the outer world 

 otherwise than by infiltration. 



In the passage called the '' Mud Cave," which is the deepest 

 part, is a vertical shaft, the walls of which are thickly coated 

 with fine red extremely stick}^ mud, so that descent without 

 ropes would be impossible ; I tried to get down, but the mud, 

 sticking to my boots in large masses, threatened to pull me 

 down more rapidly than would have been pleasant, so I had to 

 leave it. This .shaft has never been explored, but as it is in the 

 deepest known part of thecave I feel pretty certain that if it 

 could be followed it would be found to lead into some deeper 

 passages, and perhaps to the bed of the river that must in 

 former times have drained the cave. Mr. Martel, however, 

 does not attach much importance to this pit, but he has very 

 generously made me an offer that, if I wish to carry out further 

 explorations, he will lend me some of his ladders. About four 

 or five hundred yards west of the entrance is a swallow- 

 hole, which opens on the side of a hill overlooking the valley 

 north of the caves. This the guide informed me has once or 

 twice been partly explored, but he could tell me nothing about 

 it, except that he believed there was a river in some of the 

 passages. It is not known to communicate with the other 

 cave. The man who drove me from Mitchelstown to the caves 

 informed me that there was a large spring a couple of miles 

 south of the cave, but I could get no further information 

 about it. The dip of the strata is towards the south. 



The invertebrates I collected at Mitchelstown have all been 

 identified by Mr. Carpenter ; they are — 



MiTKS. 

 Gaviastis attcnnatus ; found in several parts of the cave, 

 chiefly under paper and other refuse left by tourists. 



Spidkrs. 

 Porrhoma my ops ; discovered by Mr. Carpenter in 1894 ^^^ 

 recorded in his paper. 



