TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 697 



The following Papers were then read : — 



1. The Geology of the Dublin District. 

 By Professor Grenville A. J. Cole, F.G.S. 



2. On the Cave of Castlepook, near Doneraile, Co. Cork. 

 By R. J. UssHEB, H. J. Seymoub, E. T. Newton, and R. F. Schabff, 



Castlepook Cave, north of Doneraile, leads into an extensive series of deep 

 parallel galleries in limestone. Most of them are narrow, with vertical sides up 

 to a certain level, where the walls recede with a wide sweep, forming an arched 

 tunnel. Near the top of this the galleries are still spanned in places by an ancient 

 stalagmite floor. Some of the sand on which the latter was formed" is still ad- 

 hering to it underneath. Beds of saud filled the lower parts of many galleries. This 

 sand contained, sometimes down to 12 feet, numerous remains, chiefly of reindeer. 

 The geological evidence as to the age of the cave is unsatisfactory. Only 

 rolled ar.d unstriated pebbles have yet been discovered in the cave and lio foreign 

 erratic. This would seem to indicate that the material now in the cave, and 

 hence the cave itself, is pre-glacial in age, for otherwise a pebble of the granite 

 known to be widely distributed throughout the overlying boulder-clay might 

 reasonably have been e.xpected to occur amongst the large number of boulders 

 found in the various passages. No such pebble has, however, been found. 

 The inference, therefore, on more or less negative evidence, is that the cave was 

 formed in pre-glacial times. 



The bird remains found in the cave call for no special remarks. ]More than half 

 are referable to the domestic fowl, turkey, and duck, though some of the latter 

 may belong to the wild form. Like the bones of the rook, which are also 

 numerous, they may have been brought in recently by foxes. Tbo remainder all 

 belong to such species as are now found in the neigbourhood. 



The mammalian remains are of a very different character. It is true tliat 

 the bones of the rabbit, sheep, ox, horse, pig, fox, i-at, and rat teem mostly of 

 comparatively recent origin. By far the greatest number of the bones found 

 belong to the reindeer and bear. The exceedingly numerous bone splinters, the 

 gnawed bones of reindeer, and the presence of many bones of old and young 

 hvffinas seem to indicate coexistence in Ireland of the latter and the typically 

 arctic species. The hyana, which had not previously been known to have ever 

 inhabited Ireland, is closely related to that now living in South Africa. Other 

 animals whose remains were probably dragged into the cave by hytenas, are the 

 mammoth, Irish elk, red deer, and wolf Among the smaller mammals the bones 

 and teeth of the Arctic Lemming {Dicrostony.v torguatus) and of the Scandi- 

 navian Lemming {Lemmus lemmus) are very abundant. They may have been 

 brought in by the Arctic fox. 



No human remains or implements were found except parts of modern iron tools 

 and charred wood indicating the presence of man only within quite recent times. 



In so far as Ireland is not generally believed to have been joined to England 

 by land in glacial or post-glacial times, the presence in the country of the 

 mammoth, Irish elk, and hyaena apparently confirms the opinion, arrived at from 

 geological evidence, that Castlepook Cave must be a pre-glacial one. This view 

 is supportedby the absence of many animals from Ireland which seem to have 

 made their first appearance in England during the glacial period. 



3. Probable Cretaceous and Cainozoic Outliers off the Coast of Co. Kerry, 

 By Professor Grenville A. J, Cole, F.G.S. 



The dredgings made since 1901 by the Fisheries Braach of the Department 

 of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland have amply supported the 

 conclusions then put forward,' to the efl'ect that the geological structure of the 

 ' Cole and Crook, Re^port on Fisheries of Ireland for 1901. 



