570 Notices of Memoirs — T. Plunhett — Fermanagh Caves. 



The Green Marl (No. 3) for a varying thickness in different 

 parts of the cave becomes brecciated and occasionally tufaceous. 



The animal remains are contained in this bed, and consist chiefly 

 of the teeth and jaws of hyaena, with gnawed and ungnawed bones 

 of horse, mammoth, cave bear, fox, etc. 



The lower of the two caves is partly filled with a deposit of 

 coarse rubble, and has yielded remains of hyasna, rhinoceros, and 

 the teeth and jaws of small carnivora and rodents, together with 

 worked flints, and a number of rounded stones supposed to have 

 been used as pot-boilers. The rubble deposit has evidently under- 

 gone a certain amount of displacement, so that it is by no means 

 certain if the remains contained in it are contemporaneous. 



IV. — Further Exploration of the Fermanagh Caves. ^ By 

 Thomas Plunkett, Enniskillen. 



THE original report was read by me at Dublin in 1878, and I then 

 stated that after the exploration of F cave the work would be 

 suspended, as it seemed probable that none of the caves in this 

 district would yield bones of extinct mammalia. 



I spent three summers exploring the caverns which penetrate the 

 Carboniferous Limestone hills in Fermanagh, in which I found flint 

 implements, bone, bronze, and iron pins, a large cinerary nrn 

 inverted over burnt human bones, human skulls, ancient hearths, 

 etc., also quantities of the bones of the wild horse, red deer, long- 

 snouted pig, ox, and remains of other animals not extinct. Having 

 explored a number of caves in this county previous to my reading 

 the report referred to above, I came to the conclusion that remains 

 of extinct mammalia were not likely to be found in this locality. 

 Now, on the contrary, I am glad to be in a position to report that 

 I have been fortunate in finding an entire cranium of what I believe 

 to be the great cave bear {JJrsns speJcBus) in one of the Knockmore 

 caverns, which penetrates a cliff not far from the caverns I formerly 

 explored, and is a narrow cleft with vertical sides. The height of 

 the cave is about 40 feet and length 90 feet. When standing at the 

 extreme end of this cleft-cavern one may observe near the top of one 

 of the sides an opening which is evidently the end of a horizontal 

 cave which runs at right angles into the cave in question ; 

 a good deal of debris has been during heavy rains washed out of 

 the higher cave down into the lower one ; in this debris, the cave 

 bear's head was found, and I have no doubt that, when explored, the 

 higher cave will yield more remains of the skeleton of the bear and 

 possibly other extinct animals. 



I have commenced excavations on the top of the rock, and hope 

 to find the upper or horizontal cavern (which cannot be reached 

 from the narrow cave below), which formerly must have had an 

 opening out to the surface of the ground, and probably has been 

 filled up level with the surface for the protection of cattle. 



^ Read before Section C (Geology), British Association, Bristol Meeting, 

 September, 1898. See also earlier Eeport, 1878, pp. 183-185. 



