OSSIFEROUS CAVERN NEAR CAPPAGH, WATERFORD. 333 
Having undermined a portion of the rock on one side of the 
cave, we observed a cleft above it widening. We hurriedly drew 
back, and it was well that we had timely warning, for soon the 
mass tumbled down, filling the space where we had been digging. 
But this revealed a new object of interest. On the upper surface 
of this mass, which had been separated from the solid rock above 
by a narrow fissure, lay a bone, like the bones in stratum No. 1, 
certainly, from which it may have fallen into the crevice. This, 
on being washed, proved to be a tool with a chisel-edge, ground 
down on both sides. We now forsook the interior, encumbered 
by the fallen mass of limestone, and began turning up the soil at 
the entrance of the cave. We had not dug long when my friend 
cried out, “A celt!” picking up a dark greenish stone beautifully 
formed into an axe-head. There were no marks of chipping on it, 
but it had been carefully ground-down with the greatest regularity 
until it resembled the head of a small American axe, with neat 
edge and sides. It is four inches and a half long by two inches 
and five-eighths at its broadest part. 
On resuming my excavations in May I found, close to this 
spot where lay the “celt,” and in the same upper stratum, a large 
bead three-quarters of an inch broad and a little more than a 
quarter of an inch thick, but not symmetrical. When the crust 
of earth fell off it I found that it was transparent and of the 
colour of burnt sugar. It is believed to be amber. As I dug on 
in the cave two more worked objects were found: the first, a bone 
with a neatly-cut hole running through it transversely; and the 
other, a broken shaft like that of an arrow, only that the one 
remaining barb seems to point the wrong way, and seems to have 
been cut into at its base by string, But a more elaborately- 
carved article was found deeper down in a recess behind a mass 
of stalagmite, into which it may have fallen or been carried down 
like the bone chisel. This was a knife-handle, ornamented on its 
four smoothed sides with concentric circles, cut as if with 
compasses. It is hollow, and evidently held an iron blade, as it 
is stained with rust. 
One more remark on the animal remains. As was natural in 
an Irish cave, we found bones of the omnipresent Pig throughout, 
but whether the tooth and toes which I found at a depth of seven 
feet, together with bones of Bear, can be dignified by the 
appellation of ‘wild boar,” I must leave to others to determine. 
