Bkodrick — The Marble Arch Caves, Count// Fer^nanagh. 189 



party, being in the cave alone, floated candles down the stream on small 

 rafts ; and it was then clearly to be seen that the roof continued at a height 

 of from 6 inches to a foot above the water for a considerable distance. Very 

 careful surveys were made of this cave, and also of the great Marble Arch 

 Cave ; but they were not fully worked out until after we had arrived home. 

 When the surveys were completed and plotted out on the 6-inch survey map, 

 a quite unexpected state of affairs presented itself. The upper end of the 

 stream course in the Marble Arch Cave is within 25 yards of the lower end 

 of the Cradle Hole Cave, while the conditions in each case are similar — a 

 wide cave, the floor of which is entirely occupied by a deep pool of water, to 

 the surface of which the roof comes very close and fades away into the 

 darkness beyond. It is probable that in times of low water a passage could 

 be made from one cave to the other, although the exploration would be 

 attended by considerable discomfort. 



The great Marble Arch Cave consists of several passages, some of which 

 seem to have been deserted by the river for a vast number of years, while 

 others still form active stream-courses. Two hitherto unknown openings, 

 which will be described later, were discovered leading into the cave in the 

 course of our explorations. The various ramifications of the cave are too 

 complicated to be described without a map, reference to which will 

 frequently be made. I propose, first, to describe the cave which forms 

 the main river-channel, and then to give an account of the various passages 

 which branch from it. 



As has been explained earlier, the stream from the Cradle Hole flows 

 under a low arch to reappear in a still pool at the upper end of the 

 Marble Arch Cave. M. Martel gave the name of the Grand Gallery to 

 this upper portion of the cave ; it consists of a perfectly straight passage, 

 123 yards in length, and ranges from five feet high at the upper end 

 to about fifty at " The Junction," while its width is about twenty feet. 

 The stream at first flows between low banks of sand, but after a short 

 distance is entirely diverted to the right-hand side of the passage by a bank 

 of boulders and pebbles some eight feet high ; this bank continues from here 

 along the left side of the passage as far as the Junction, while the stream 

 flows below between large boulders. M. Martel states that he worked his 

 way the full length of the passage in a boat; from his statement it is 

 clear that a considerable alteration must have taken place in the level of the 

 water or of the fioor of the cave — as at the time of our explorations no boat 

 could, under any normal conditions of rainfall, be floated at any point aboA'e 

 the Junction. The Junction consists of a large chamber formed at the 

 meeting-point of three passages, the one to the right (N.E.) leading into a 

 series of dry passages, while that to the left (ISr.W.) receives the main stream. 



