( ei ) 



The earliest clescriber of this cave was Bishop Berkeley, but the 

 most important account of it is given by our fellow Academician, Dr. 

 Poot, who described the principal features of the cave in conjunction 

 with the Eev. Mr. Graves and Mr. Burtchell. He shows that at least 

 for two centuries the place was known as a receptacle for human bones. 

 They were so abundant that the floor was strewed with them. 



Mr. Hardman states, that these have disappeared, so that Dr. 

 Poot's collection was obtained from a bed of clay or silt. 



As regards the origin of these bones there is a considerable differ- 

 ence between Dr. Foot and Mr. Hardman; the former considering them 

 to be the remains of natives destroyed by the Danes, at about the 

 tenth century, the latter holding that the bones may be referred to 

 the Bronze or Stone period. Mr. Hardman remarks that Dr. Foot 

 looked at these remains as an antiquarian as he had done as a geologist. 

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

 great slaughter at Dearc-Fearna, a.d. 928. The passage runs thus — 

 "Godfrey, grandson of Imhar, with the foreigners of Ath-cliath, 

 demolished and plundered Dearc-Fearna, where 1000 persons were 

 killed in this year, as is stated in the following quatrain. 



"Nine hundred years without sorrow, twenty-eight it has been proved. 

 Since Christ came to our relief to the plundering of Dearc-Fearna." 



— 0' Donovan. 



The quantity of human bones, as compared with those of the 

 domestic animals, is in favour of the entry in the Annals of the massacre 

 in the tenth centiuy, and the frequency of the bones of infants and 

 children is most interesting. To me it appears probable that in this 

 cave the bones of man as well as of the domestic animals are to be 

 attributed to two sources — the human remains of adults, and of chil- 

 dren, to the massacre by the Danes in the tenth century ; those of 

 other animals to the still more remote causes spoken of by Sir Charles 

 Lyell and Schmurling. 



One point mentioned by Mr. Hardman, namely, that the charcoal 

 of coniferous wood was found remote fi'om the entrance, and inter- 

 stratified with the osseous deposit, has also been mentioned by Dr. 

 Foot, as recorded by Mr. Mallet in 1848. This points to suffocation 

 as one mode of death. 



The labours of the Academy, as shown in the " Proceedings" and 

 "Transactions" for 1875, exhibit full evidence of earnest, varied, 



