2 



Proceedings of the Royal Irish Aeadpmy, 



and in the same deposit, an assemblage of broken bones of Irish Elk, 

 with charcoal and other evidences of man's former presence. The 

 report upon that cave may, however, have to be reviewed in the light 

 of recent discoveries in other counties.^ 



In 1898 Mr. Thomas Plunkett described to the British Associa- 

 tion the finding in a County Fermanagh cave of a Bear's skull, now 

 in the National Museum. It was among debris that appeared to have 

 been washed out of a higher gallery that opened above the spot where 

 it was discovered.- With the first year of the present century, upon 

 the initiative of Dr. Scharlf, sustained cave-exploration work was 

 organized, and the funds were provided for three seasons by grants 

 from the Eoyal Irish Academy and the British Association. During 

 the four summers of 1901 to 1904 a series of caves with post-glacial 

 deposits have been dug out in the Counties of Sligo^ and Clare, ^ 

 all of which contained human bones and implements of various 

 periods in their upper strata, while their deeper beds, and some- 

 times even the surface-stratum, yielded numerous remains of Bear 

 and Beindeer, and (in County Clare) many of the Irish Elk. The 

 interesting addition of the Arctic Lemming from both counties has 

 rewarded the scrutiny of Dr. Scharfi, who has also announced the 

 Wild Cat from more than one County Clare cave. Bears as well 

 as Reindeer appear to have survived until the human occupation, 

 and to have been used by man. Among the varied implements 

 found in these caverns may specially be mentioned delicately-pointed 

 bonepins and piercing instruments, and the canine teeth of Bear, 

 Dog, and Boar, which had been fashioned into rude implements or 

 amulets, also finely-chipped scrapers of flint, and pins of bronze. 

 An interesting glimpse at the life of the cave-dwellers has been 

 a:fforded by the discovery of a stone oil-lamp, formed out of a hollowed 

 sandstone boulder. The limited fauna of the Sligo and Clare caves 

 suggested that researches should be made further south, as those 

 counties had been subjected to very rigorous giaciation. Accordingly, 

 I made some visits to caves in County Limerick, and in the north of 

 Cork near Doneraile. 



While visiting that district, I was taken last May by Colonel J. 



1 Proc. E. I. Acad., 2nd ser., vol. ii., No. 3, 1881 (abstract). Sci. Trans. R. 

 Dublin Soc, vol. i. (series ii.), April, 1881 (full report). 



2 Brit. Assoc. Report, 1898, p. 885. 



Trans. R. I. Acad., vol. xxxii., Sect. B., part iv., September, 1903. 

 ^ Report on Caves in Co. Clare, in preparation for the Royal Irish Academy. 



