Htll, Bkodktck, and 1^vlb—T//c MitchcUtown Caves. 258 



between enormous boulders, joins Chimney {a) some yards below the level of 

 the floor of O'Leary's Cave. 



The obstructing boulder referred to above can be turned by a scramble 

 around either side, and you are then in a straight, broad tunnel 15 feet high, 

 known as the Four Courts, whose exit is blocked by a mass of bed-rock, 

 which on first sight is apparently impassable. The squeeze through the 

 narrow slit here provided by nature as the only means of progress is as 

 uncomfortable and awkward as that through the Eabbit-hole in another 

 part of the cave, described in Eoute II. 



But you are rewarded for your exertions by what lies beyond. Imme- 

 diately to your right a short but lofty passage leads you over a shallow pool 

 of still water (Martel's Pool), to a fine cave bedecked with many beautiful 

 stalactites. Immediately to the left rises a steep and narrow chimney 

 (Chimney (&)), 27 feet in height, thickly bedaubed with clay, which when 

 surmounted involves you in a maze of tightly fitting boulders forming 

 the floor of the cave above. Wriggling through these with difficulty, you 

 emerge into the high-level chamber known as O'Leary's Cave. 



It will thus be seen that there are two ways of access to O'Leary's 

 Cave — lettered respectively Chimney {a) and (h) ; (a) starts through the 

 narrow tunnel already described, just before reaching the big fallen boulder. 

 This passage rapidly diminishes in size, and then expands upwards into a 

 lofty chamber, wherein great boulders are heaped up promiscuously in the 

 wildest confusion. One huge block, which must be many tons in weight, is 

 particularly noticeable, being balanced directly overhead at this point in a 

 seemingly unstable condition of equilibrium. Climbing upwards amongst 

 these boulders, always with a tendency to the right, you presently pass the 

 junction with the winding path referred to above, and then a rise of 10 feet 

 brings you out into O'Leary's Cave. It will then be seen that the cavity 

 from which you have just emerged is in reality a depression in the floor 

 of O'Leary's Cave ; and that the huge balanced boulder which seemed so 

 unstable from below is securely fixed on a firm basis. 



O'Leary's Cave ranks with the Garrett Cave (to be described later 

 in Eoute IV) as one of the two largest chambers in the whole cavern. 

 Its dimensions are so vast that it is difficult to estimate its size from a mere 

 glance round, except with profuse illumination from many points simul- 

 taneously. Its floor, unlike the rest of the cavern, where everything is sealed 

 down with stalagmite, is covered with loose, sharp-edged fragments of rock, 

 as if betokening a recent fall from the roof. IL contains several fine columns 

 uniting floor and ceiling ; and one grand stretch of stalactite curtains situate 

 about its middle, which has the appearance of sheets hung out on a clothes- 



[2 P==-] 



