78 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 
deposited there contemporaneously with them. The charcoal and cal- 
careous seams mark successive floors during the slow accumulation of 
a refuse-heap, during which man was the chief occupant of the cave. 
The condition of the larger bones, especially of those of the Ivish elk, 
is an additional proof of the human occupation of the cavity at a time 
when those animals lived; and the chipped hammer-stones found in 
the same stratum were, in all probability, the very tools whereby 
those bones were broken and split along their length, for their mar- 
row. 
The intrusion of the animal and human relics through the roof- 
openings of the inner cavity is negatived by the fact that, throughout 
its accumulations, no ancient exuvie nor implements were found. 
The indentations on a few of the pieces of bone and antler may 
have been made by the teeth of large carnivorous quadrupeds, during 
the absence of the human occupants ; but the antlers of the Irish elk 
could hardly have been introduced by any other agency than that of 
man. 
It has been suggested that the Irish elk’s bones may have been 
brought in, after the extinction of that species, in a fossil state; but 
it has not been shown that the cave-men could have had any sufficient 
reason for bringing in and breaking up so large a number, nor why so 
many of the small bones of carpus and tarsus and phalanges were 
brought into the cave, which can only be accounted for by the limbs 
having been brought there in the flesh. How the fragments of human 
bones got mixed with the stone implements and animal remains we 
do not at present venture to suggest. 
Lfth Period.—Caleareous deposits cease. The inhabitants use 
carved bone implements and polished celts. The Irish elk and bear 
disappear, giving place to domesticated races of animals. 
