Ussuer, ApAms, and KinAHAN—On Ballynamintra Cave. 75 
broken masses of stalagmite hereafter mentioned. It rested on the 
gravel. Near the swallow-holes were found in it an assemblage of 
bones of bear, similar in size to bones of the same species found in the 
stalagmite a few feet further in: they may have belonged to the same 
individual. The great majority of bones in this stratum were of 
a pale buff tint, like those in the stalagmite, and, like them, were 
heavy, highly mineralized, and very brittle. Bits of charcoal occurred 
occasionally ; but traces of man in this pale sandy earth appear to be 
few and doubtful, while the species of animals, though fewer, were 
all represented in the second stratum. 
IV.—The Crystalline Stalagmite. 
In every part of the cave this deposit, though sometimes shattered, 
was found, always buried under the preceding strata, and either rest- 
ing on or bearing traces of the gravel beneath. From the twelfth foot 
inwards it extended across the cave in an unbroken floor of great 
thickness, from wall to wall; but outside this limit the stalagmite 
was found broken up and disturbed, lying embedded in the pale sandy 
earth. A disconnected mass of the stalagmite floor contained, in its 
lower portion, next the gravel, jaws and other bones of a large bear, 
which appear to have been deposited in the flesh, as adjoining bones 
of the skeleton were found together. Near them was also embedded a 
metacarpal bone of deer, with characters of reindeer, and in another 
mass of stalagmite some teeth of red deer. This stratum contained no 
trace of man. The stalagmite floor rose inwards, until, at twenty- 
four feet from the cave’s mouth, there was only an interval of from 
six to twelve inches between it and the roof, which interval was choked 
up with accumulations. 
The Gravel. 
This deposit, which lay directly on the limestone floor, was uni- 
form in character, and contained no animal remains nor other relics. 
It was of small size, composed of rounded and subangular fragments of 
the old red sandstone and other rocks, but not of limestone. 
The Inner Cavity. 
Beyond the twenty-fourth foot from the entrance the cave loses 
its tunnel shape, expanding into two irregular chambers, in each of 
which is a great upward opening. On the bottom was the gravel, 
next the stalagmite floor. Upon this was tenacious clay, passing up- 
wards into loam, which, with sandstone and limestone blocks contained 
in it, and a profusion of limestone rubble cemented to the roof by cale 
tufa, filled up the inner cavity and both its chimneys. 
The earthy contents of this cavity, and the calcareous tufa, justify 
us, by their similarity to the materials of the first and second stratum 
in the outer part of the cave, in correlating them, and in supposing 
that the latter were derived from within. But one striking difference 
must be emphatically stated, viz., in no part of the inner cavity have 
any remains of ancient animals been found, nor any traces of man. 
I 2 
