UssHER — 0)1 Extinct Mammal 8 found in a Co. Cork Cavern. 3 



Grove White to a cave mentioned to me by Lord Castletawn on his 

 estate near Castle Pook. Entering from an old quarry by a low 

 tunnel, we soon found ourselves lost in a labyrinth of galleries ; and 

 while seeking our way, my attendant, John Power, came upon a bone, 

 partially exposed, which I recognized to be a Mammoth's scapula. It 

 had been gnawed round the edges, and bore indentations of huge 

 teeth, while a piece of it broken off in this process was found several 

 feet away in the sand, as well as a Reindeer's shin-bone. 



Being anxious to conclude my work in County Clare, three months 

 were then occupied in the excavation of three caves there, and it was not 

 until the 1st of September that I was able to commence the explora- 

 tion of the new cave in County Cork, where I remained until the 1 st 

 of November. 



This vast cavern justifies the name I propose to give it of the 

 Mammoth Cave, both from its great extent and from the fact that in 

 seven different galleries remains of Mammoth were found. 



There are halls and chambers of great size ; but the characteristic 

 feature of the system is a series of deep galleries that run parallel to 

 each other from N^.E. to S.AY., and are so close as to be confluent in 

 places, the dividing walls having occasionally collapsed. The great 

 depth of these galleries denotes a very prolonged wearing down by 

 water ; and they exhibit as landmarks of their history two and even 

 three stalagmite floors, the lower ones formed of the concreted debris 

 where the upper floor had broken down after its supporting sand- 

 bed had been washed away. 



In every part of this extensive cave-system we find a floor of 

 crystalline stalagmite which sparkles in places like barley-sugar 

 when it is broken. This is usually the uppermost deposit, and where 

 it is undisturbed it reposes on a deep stratum of triturated Old Red 

 Sandstone. The presence of this material is easily to be accounted 

 for, as the sandstone formation, of which the neighbouring Bally- 

 houra Mountains are composed, approaches the cave about a mile 

 and a half to the north ; from those mountains flow all the streams 

 of the district, spreading the red, sandy material over the limestone 

 tract. 



It is an elevated district, the cave itself being about 300 feet above 

 the sea-level ; but the cavity, with its ramiflcations, was evidently 

 formed by the underground waters that drained from the upland 

 valley upon which Castle Pook looks down from a neighbouring knoll ; 

 its square mass of ruined masonry supplies a prominent land-mark 

 there, and it gives its name to the townland. 



