240 KEPOKT— 1882. 



tion tinder the microscope it was found to have passed into a state of 

 glass. The glass itf.elf is transparent and colourless, and hard enough to 

 scratch ordinary window-glass ; it is, however, filled with innumerable 

 oval and tubular cavities, so as to resemble pumice, and it is to these 

 that it owes its whiteness and opacity when seen by the unassisted eye. 

 It is now in process of chemical examination. 



It is proposed to continue these experiments on silica, particularly 

 under much higher temperatures than those hitherto employed, and to 

 extend them to other substances. 



Report of the Committee, consisting of the late Professor A. Leith 

 Adams, Professor W. Boyd Dawkins, Dr. John Evans, Mr. Gr. H. 

 KiNAHAN, and Mr. K. J. Ussher {Secretary), appointed for the 

 purpose of carrying out Explorations in Caves of Carboniferous 

 Limestone in the South of Ireland. 



"Within the past three months attempts have been made to effect an 

 entrance from the face of the scarp into the series of caves discovered and 

 reported on last year (1881) in the rock called the Carrigmurrish, but 

 after a careful survey had been made, and levels taken from the several 

 branches of the caves by Mr. DufEn, County Surveyor (whose kind assist- 

 ance we wish specially to acknowledge), it was found that the caves lay 

 at so low a level as to make such a mode of access to them practically 

 impossible. The onlj' enti-ance to them continues to be by the difhcult 

 descent within the rath on the top of the rock. A series of trial pits 

 were then sunk with candle-light in the several branches of the caves. 

 Beneath the stalagmite floor was iu all cases a deep layer of tenacious 

 clay, passing into gravel when the pits were sunk to the depth of about 

 six feet. No animal remains nor other relics occurred in these trial pits. 



It is therefore probable that the only objects of interest that will be 

 yielded by excavations on the Carrigmurrish will be found in the kitchen- 

 midden of the rath, much of which remains untouched. 



Our next operations were conducted in the Bone cave of Ballyna- 

 mintra, which yielded remains of man associated with those of Irish elk 

 and bear in 1879, as reported in the ' Proceedings of the Royal Irish. 

 Academy for 1880,' and more fully in the ' Transactions of the Royal 

 Dublin Society for 1881.' 



In this cave a new chamber was cleared out down to the level of the 

 stalagmite floor, and a portion of the latter was broken up, but as yet with- 

 out result. Beyond this chamber, however, a new series of chambers, 

 were discovered in which no excavations have been made. 



Excavations have therefore been carried on during the past season 

 only to a very limited extent, owing to unusual demands on time and 

 labour for other purposes. The amount expended in wages, &c., is but 

 two pounds. 



The ossiferous caverns in the county of Waterford have not, however, 

 been exhausted. The Shandon Cave, which yielded so many fossil 



