1^96-] MARTEt. — Mitcheistowit Cave* 103 



The rock, according to Mr. Kinahan, is the same (Car- 

 boniferous) as at Cong, where the actual waters probably 

 circulate in a network of crevices of this kind. We compre- 

 hend why the galleries of absorption are nearly all in the 

 southern part of the grotto (except Garret Cave) when we 

 remark that such is the general direction of the dip (at 40®) 

 of the calcareous strata. 



Certain diaclases have been widened out into distaff shape 

 and communicate with each other under the low strata which 

 have not been carried away, as at the source of Marble Arch 

 cave near Knniskillen, County Fermanagh. 



There are no longer any traces of running water in Mitchels- 

 town Cave, at least in summer ; the so-called *' river" is a pool 

 of stagnant water ten yards long by half a yard or one yard 

 in depth and width, which has taken refuge in an impervious 

 hollow ; there is another basin near the hall of the Four 

 Courts ', both are produced by infiltration ; their temperature 

 is 10^ Cent., the air of the grotto being (in two different points) 

 io'5^ Cent. 



One will remark on the plan, and on the vertical section of 

 OXeary's Cave, the indescribable entanglement of three stories 

 of superposed galleries ; they communicate by a very narrow 

 ''chimney." The subterranean waters have accomplished 

 there a singularly complicated work of mining. 



From a picturesque point of view the cave of Mitchelstown 

 is much inferior to those of Adelsberg, Dargilon, Padirac, 

 Han-sur-Lesse, etc. Its highest vault is only ten yards high ; 

 the galleries of Kingston, Sand Cave, and the Cathedral are 

 nevertheless very remarkable in form. The most part of the 

 calcareous concretions do not deserve the attention that the 

 guide-book demands for them ; and unfortunately, the pret- 

 tiest stalactites, which would look well in any cavern, are 

 situated in Brogden's Cave, the access to which being very 

 difficult, is quite impracticable to tourists. At the cross-way 

 marked on the plan " difficult passage,'' the local guide who 

 alone accompanied me, and who had only been there once, 

 when a child, twenty-five years before, completely lost his 

 way ; we were obliged to have recourse to the compass and 

 to the plan I had drawn out, to find the passage again. It is 

 a great pity, for the little lateral chamber in Brogdeu's Cave 



