92 H. C. Lawlor on 



section so that it might be shown on a larger scale. Unfortu- 

 nately the branch to the left, crossing under the County road, 

 was crushed in by heavy traffic, and only a short extent of it 

 now can be seen, though Mi\ Wilson, the proprietor of the farm, 

 hopes to open up and investigate the passage on the opposite 

 side of the road. 



The most remarkable of all the Lecale Souterrains I have 

 seen, however, is that in Tyrella demesne. It is almost a replica 

 of the last described, but is nearly 140 feet long. My visit to 

 it was hurried, and I had not time to make a survey of it, my 

 guess at the length being only achieved by pacing. It is beauti- 

 fully built with close-fitting dressed stones, the chippings of which 

 form a perfectly level dry floor. It, like Toberdoney and Kath- 

 mullan, is systematically ventilated. To anyone interested in 

 Souterrains of the most advanced and later type, a visit to the 

 Eathmullan and Tyrella examples, and if possible to that at 

 Toberdoney, will be of immense interest. I have not had the 

 opportunity of visiting the Souterrains of Cornwall, or even of 

 seeing accurate illustrations of them, but from a somewhat brief 

 account of them by Dr. Munro, the Lecale examples seem to 

 resemble the Cornwall type closely. 



In the County Antrim type these long passages are not 

 found. The caves are usually divided into a number of rooms 

 averaging perhaps 20 feet long, separated from each other by 

 small passages usually about 2 feet square, and 3 or 4 feet long. 

 They are built of large rough utihewn boulders, which do not fit 

 closely together, thus permitting the outside soil to trickle through. 

 The County Down type are all of dressed stone fitting closely 

 together and keeping out the outer soil, so that their artificially 

 made gravel floors remain to-day in many cases as clean as they 

 were 1,000 years ago. 



We now come to the important question of the age of the 

 Souterrain as a dwelling place, and the equally interesting 

 question, who lived in them ] 



As I mentioned in my last year's paper, some twenty 



