DUBLIN NATUEAL HISTOKY SOCIETY. 95 



forsaking the vicinity of cultivation, in which alone they are generally 

 found in other places, and planting themselves in every nook and crevice 

 of the rocks and cliffs ; the Seaside spleenwort obtaining a size, luxuri- 

 ance, and height which must be seen to be believed, and in its characters 

 approaching Jamaican forms; the yew clothing the bare cliifs, to say 

 nothing of the Gentiana verna, Dryas octopetala, Helianthemum canum, 

 and various saxifrages, clothing every bank. 



Of the animals it is scarcely necessary to speak, — the curious Crus- 

 tacea, such ix^Pisa tetraodon, Xantho florida, and Hivulosa and Athanas 

 nitescens ; in Echinoderms, — Echinus lividus, Gaertner's spoonworm, 

 sipunculi, and holothuriadae ; with molluscs and sea anemones, of pecu- 

 liar form, found in nearly every creek, — point to a district severed, as 

 far as distribution is concerned, from all the rest of Ireland, and render 

 it probable that to the same source, viz. peculiar district distribution, is 

 to be attributed the occurrence and abundance of this bat. But these 

 speculations I hope to treat more fully of in another paper, and there- 

 fore pass at once to the proper subject of this. 



Our first day's research was in caves near Inchiquin Lough. The 

 first cave searched opens to the south, in the face of a picturesque lime- 

 stone cliif, bounding one side of a deep ravine, destitute of trees, except 

 an odd stunted ash, but hung with the commoner ferns. Here we did 

 not meet with any bats. "We next proceeded to Yigo cave. This is at the 

 edge of Inchiquin Lough, at the side of the road, at the verge of a dense 

 plantation, and facing about south-east. The mouth of the cavern ex- 

 hibits a fine geological section at its entrance ; the roof being coal- 

 measures, which, as the cave rapidly descends, are replaced by the lower 

 limestone, crowded with fossils. The mouth of the cave externally is 

 festooned with ivy and a tapestry of ferns, the most abundant of which 

 are the hart's- tongue, maiden-hair spleenwort, male fern, a few plants 

 of the lady fern, were also just beginning to show their heads when our 

 fii'st visit was paid, March 8, 1861. 



The access to this cave is by a steep slope, down which, at the time 

 of our visit, a tiny stream was flovnng, which soon lost itself in the 

 rubbish at the mouth of the cave. Having gained the bottom, the cave 

 is continued for some distance nearly on a level, the floor composed of a 

 slippery, tenacious clay, of considerable depth ; it then narrows, gra- 

 dually ascends, and at length further progress is barred by a high cliif, 

 up which we did not ascend, as the cave terminates at a short distance 

 from this point. The breadth of the cave is moderate throughout, and 

 the roof, in parts low, became near the cliff so lofty, that our candles 

 barely sufficed to show it in an indistinct gloom. I may observe that 

 the clay in the floor of the cave was bored and caverned either by 

 badgers and otters, the track of whose feet might be iDlainly seen. A few 

 stalactites of small size hung in parts from the roof, and the cave was 

 tolerably dry. In one or two places there are small pools of water ; 

 though I searched them carefully, I could find no traces of the blind 

 acaiinse, which had occurred so abundantly to me ia the caves of Dun- 

 more, county of Kilkenny, in a similar situatioiu 



