Hardman — On tivo new Deposits of Human Bones. 169 



found at quite the opposite extremity of the Cave, and in a different 

 chamber, two places in which bones were fully as abundant, not 

 only human, but mixed or embedded with those of other animals, of 

 which those of sheep or goat, pig and ox, have been identified. 



To make my account intelligible, a short description of the Cave 

 is necessary. The mouth of the Cave (see plan, Plate 18, fig. 1) 

 which forms a rude arch, some 30 feet high, and about equal width, is 

 approached fi^om an old quarry, by a very steep incline, continuing 

 into the interior some distance (about 200 feet). At the bottom it 

 turns in to the left, and is at last stopped by a great bank of stalag- 

 mite, clay, and angular dehris. This place is the lowest part of the 

 Cave, ancl is called the "Fairies' Floor." Retracing our steps about 

 half-way to the entrance, there is found a deep recess in the side. 

 Entering this, it is seen to branch to the north and south. The 

 northern opening is narrow, but enlarges after a little, and leads into 

 a large chamber of very ii'regular height ; in one place the floor com- 

 ing within tliree feet of the roof. This is known as the " Eabbit 

 Buri'ow," and at the extreme end of it (at a) is the deposit of bones 

 referred to by Dr Poot. The southern passage leads, by a very rough 

 and dij6fi.cult way, to the "Market Cross," a very large chamber, so 

 called from the magnificent stalactitic pillar which it contains, and which 

 is represented in the accompanying sketch (Plate 18, fig. 2). This 

 pillar cannot be less than sixteen feet high ; the shaft is about four to 

 five feet in diameter, the pedestal in the view given, from six to 

 eight feet, but it is over twelve feet when looked at from the left, — the 

 sketch, in fact, showing the narrowest aspect of the whole pillar. A 

 second pillar, of nearly the same dimensions, formerly graced this 

 apartment ; but I am informed that a gentleman in the neighbourhood 

 committed the vandalism of cutting it down to adorn his grounds. 

 The examples seen in this part of the Cave, especially that before us, 

 exhibit well the mode of formation of these pillars, and their gradual 

 accumulation from ground and ceiling simultaneously, finally meeting 

 and becoming one solid mass, then thickening laterally. I^ear this 

 pillar are the two new localities for bones which we discovered. As 

 the mode of occurrence of these deposits, and of that abeady known, is 

 similar in all these cases, and involves points not touched on by Dr. 

 Foot, I shall endeavour to describe it. I should first remark that Dr. 

 Foot and his fiiends looked on these deposits entirely from an anti- 

 quarian point of view ; and most naturally so, just as I myself, from the 

 natiu'e of my pursuits, had the geological ancl pre-historic idea upper- 

 most in my mind fi'om the instant I saw them : and in support of those 

 views Dr. Foot quotes from the Annals of the Four Masters an account 

 of a gi'eat slaughter at Bearc-Fearna, the "Cave of the Alders," and 

 which he considers refers to the Cave itself. I am inclined to think, 

 however, that it simply denotes the townland, or territory, so called, 

 according to the usual custom, from the principal feature in it. The 

 passage runs thus, the date being the Age of Chiist, 928 : — 



