THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 1 45 



never be satisfactorily solved. All who accept the theory of the 

 Aryan migration must admit that many of the so-called Celtic myths 

 may yet prove to be based on actual facts. Ireland abounds in 

 limestone caverns which probably are rich in organic remains and 

 implements, such as were found in England, Belgium and France, 

 but as far as I know no' proper examination under duly qualified 

 geologists has been made, save in one instance, when the late Pro- 

 fessor Leith Adams opened a few ossiferous caves in the County of 

 Cork. This state of things does not seem exactly creditable to Irish 

 geologists. The Anthropological Society of Great Britain has an 

 unexplored field there for further research, and surely it would be of 

 unquestionable importance to science if our neglected caverns or 

 grottos were forced to reveal the hidden secrets they perhaps retain. 

 Continental explorers have unquestionably proved that a race of 

 men like the modern Esquimaux in interglacial times, if not earlier, 

 left their skulls and bones there mixed with the remains of animals 

 still existing in the Arctic Regions, elsewhere extinct. Within the 

 past half century in a cranogue at Lough Our, in the County of 

 Limerick, the bones of the Arctic bear were unearthed. Does such 

 a find indicate a more southerly range as its habitation ? Further 

 exploration can alone throw light on the subject. 



It is probable that Inis-Ealge (the noble island), received at an 

 early period, pre-historic of course, a few colonists from Great Britain 

 in their hide-covered corroghs. The bardic annals, alluded to by 

 more recent writers, mention a people named Fomorians, or sea 

 robbers, who visited the island on plundering expeditions previous 

 to the arrival of the Fir-bolg colonists, so called from the leather 

 bags they carried. Tighernagh, Abbot of Clonmacnoise, who lived in 

 the eleventh century, considered all records regarding historical tra- 

 dition beyond B. C. 305 as doubtful chronicles. Many of the state- 

 ments would appear to him incredible which no man to-day would 

 doubt who has studied the topography of the island, or who has 

 been impressed with a view of such extraordinary monuments as 

 were raised by the pastoral Fir-bolg or highly civilized Danaan, the 

 skilled mechanic. The burial places of the kings of the latter peo- 

 ple, Dowth, New Grange, etc.. Dr. Petrie states " rank after the 

 Pyramids of Egypt," yet all we know respecting them is this, "a 

 thousand years ago they were broken into and plundered by Ostmen 

 (Danes)." 



