250 REPORT — 1902. 



resembling those found in Dunshaughlin crannog, and in the same vicinity 

 a bronze pin with a ring attached to it. The upper stratum contained a 

 second bronze pin at 38 feet from the mouth of the cave, and farther in 

 again was a small iron rod. Shells of marine Mussels repeatedly occurred in 

 this upper stratum and also an oyster-shell, though the sea is now fifteen 

 miles distant, and is not likely to have been much nearer in neolithic 

 times. 



The human remains were few, and occurred chiefly near the Sloping 

 Chamber ; but the bones and teeth of domestic animals were exceedingly 

 numerous, and were found wherever the stratum extended. These were 

 generally fragmentary and represented the species usually found in Irish 

 kitchen middens, viz., hoi-se, red deer, ox, sheep, goat, pig, and dog. 



Among the wild species represented in this upper stratum fox and 

 rabbit were numerous, hare and red deer less so ; but an interesting find 

 was a metatarsus of reindeer, which occurred in the gallery to the right, 

 deep down in this stratum ; while charcoal was found lower down in the 

 same deposit and in the same bench, each bench measuring 2 feet wide. 



In several parts of the cave the upper stratum contained bones of 

 brown bear. These were found near the lower horizon of the deposit, so 

 that in some cases they may have been lying on the surface of the clay 

 which formed the second stratum where the deposition of the upper one 

 commenced. In one case a bone of a bear was partly embedded in the 

 upper stratum and partly in the clay. 



Bones of field-mice were numerous, as well as those of frog. 



The second stratum of clay, which also extended throughout the 

 galleries of the Plunkett Cave, was brown, inclining to ochreous, more or 

 less sandy, and contained numerous fragments of limestone and chert. 

 Worn rounded pebbles were scarce in the clay, and occurred chiefly in 

 or near the Water Gallery. 



The quartz sand in this yellowish clay seems to be truly detrital and 

 of external origin ; it sometimes largely predominates over the clayey 

 particles. The clay itself, however, probably arises from the decay of 

 certain layers of the limestone, since it contains, and at times abun- 

 dantly, the typical bipyramidal crystals of quartz. Its non-calcareous 

 nature shows that it was deposited when solution was fairly active, while 

 the upper tufaceous deposits indicate conditions favourable to stalagmitic 

 growth. 



The presence of occasional worn pebbles of red sandstone in the interior 

 of the caves might Ije explained on the supposition that the pebbles had 

 been washed down pot holes and crevices from the hill above. The 

 gravelly deposit at the mouth of the Plunkett Cave could not, however, 

 be thus explained. It is too thick and too limited in area, and some of 

 its contained boulders are too large to have been thus introduced, and 

 there seems no escape from the conclusion that the gravel has been washed 

 to the mouth of the cave from without. 



Some of the larger limestone boulders, especially those towards the 

 top of the gravel, were undoubtedly glaciated (not only scratched, but 

 exhibiting also the characteristic shape of glaciated blocks), and did not 

 seem to have been worn or washed much since this glaciation. 



There is not enough drift on the mountain above to explain the 

 presence of the gravel as a down-wash, even if the contour of the hill were 

 such as to render a down-wash of this kind possible, which is not the 

 case. The plain of drift, with its characteristic original moundy topo- 



