'^^IS Quadrupeds. 



nowhere else in Ireland. Tlie maidenhair fern {Adiuntum Capillus- 

 Veneris) grows in extreme luxuriance, and by the acre : that remark- 

 able plant, Potentilla fruticosa, not known elsewhere in Ireland; Ajiiga 

 pyramidalis, hitherto only met with in the Isle of Man ; and other 

 plants of a similar kind, here grow in such luxuriance as no other 

 part of Ireland can display. The hart's-tongue fern, filling every 

 nook and cranny, exhibits a luxuriance of growth and variety of form 

 which I have never seen approached, far less equalled, in any other 

 district ; Grammitis Ceterach, the maidenhair spleenwort [Asplenium 

 Trichonmnes), the wall rue and the black-stalked spleenwort, all brave 

 the extreme fury of the western blasts, and, forsaking the neighbour- 

 hood of man, in which alone they are generally found in other places, 

 plant themselves in every nook and crevice of the rocks and cliffs; 

 the sea-side spleenwort attains a size, luxuriance and height which 

 must be seen to be believed, and in its characters approaches to a 

 Jamaican form. The yew clothes the bare cliffs ; and Gentiana verna, 

 Dryas octopetala, Helianthemum canum, and Saxifrages clothe every 

 bank. 



Of the animals it is scarcely necessary to speak. The curious 

 Crustacea, such as Pisa tetraodon, Xantho florida and X. rivulosa, 

 Athanas nitescens, &c. ; the Echinoderms, such as Gaertner's spoon- 

 worm, Thallasema Neptuni, T. Sepunculi and T. Holothuriae ; • the 

 mollusks and Actinite, of rare forms, found in nearly every creek, 

 point to a district severed, as far as distribution is concerned, from all 

 the rest of Ireland, and render it probable that to the same source, 

 viz., the prevalence of a peculiar district-distribution, is to be attri- 

 buted the occurrence and abundance of the bat referred to. But these 

 speculations I hope to treat of more fully hereafter, and therefore pass 

 at once to the proper subject of this paper. 



Our first day's research (March 8th) was in caves near Inchiquin 

 Lough. The first cave searched opens to the south, in the face of a 

 picturesque limestone cliff, bounding one side of a deep ravine, desti- 

 tute of trees except and odd stunted ash, but hung with the commoner 

 ferns. Here we did not meet with any bats. We next proceeded to 

 Vigo cave ; this is at the edge of Inchiquin Lough, at the side of the 

 road, at the verge of a dense plantation, 'and facing about E.S.E. The 

 mouth of the cavern exhibits a fine geological section at the entrance, 

 the roof being coal-measures, which, as the cave rapidly descends, is 

 replaced by the lower limestone, crowded with fossils. The entrance 

 of the cave externally is festooned with ivy, and tapestried with ferns, 

 the most abundant of which are the hart's-tongue {Phyllitis Scolopen- 



