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bers and passages, is excavated out of the Old Red Sandstone, and 

 being cut in the top of the rock, the material is of slaty texture, and 

 consequently the interior surfaces are rough and irregular, and in some 

 places soft and crumbling. The passage marked 5 leads into chamber 

 No. 2. This passage is nine feet in length, and two feet in diameter. 



The chamber No. 2 is of very irregular shape : its breadth, as 

 shown on section line e, f, is four feet six inches, and height five feet. 

 There is a recess, or side chamber, to the right, the extremity of which 

 is closed up with earth and stones, where shown by the dark shading. 

 Whether this closes a chamber beyond we had no mode of ascertaining. 

 The passage No. 6 is five feet in length, and two feet in diameter at one 

 end, and eighteen inches at the other; it leads into chamber No. 3, also 

 of irregular form and dimensions ; on the section line c, d, it is four feet 

 wide, and four feet three inches high ; it diminishes to a narrow passage, 

 marked 7 on plan, which at its narrowest part is only sixteen inches 

 wide, and can with difficulty be passed. Chamber No. 3 has also one 

 of the side recesses, as in No. 2. Chamber No. 4 is, as will be seen, of 

 a crescent shape ; on the section line a, b, it is four feet wide, and three 

 feet six inches high ; on the right-hand side is also one of the before- 

 named recesses, but deeper and more spacious ; in its arched roof is a 

 flue, or air shaft, nine inches square, and running to the surface in an 

 oblique direction. This chamber also terminates in another narrow 

 passage, eighteen inches in diameter, outside of which a pit has been 

 sunk by Mr. Kane, so that a person can pass through all the chambers 

 without being obliged to return. 



The plan being laid down to scale, the dimensions of any part can 

 be ascertained. 



It will be seen by the sections that all the chambers are of an irre- 

 gularly arched form : the recessed parts are also arched ; and the 

 intersections form rude groins. The floors are strewed with many 

 large flat stones; and a quantity of hard vitrified material — in fact, 

 regular clinkers — were found ; as also many half calcined pieces of 

 limestone, or what is known as the core of badly burned lime. The 

 difficult} 7 in an archaeological point of view is the appropriation of 

 this singular excavation, which is evidently not constructed upon any 

 regular plan. 



- Being aware that most of our forts have artificial crypts beneath 

 them, I made most diligent inquiry as to whether one existed on the 

 site of the caves ; but the universal answer was, that neither in me- 

 mory nor tradition was a fort ever known there. I also examined 

 the ground most carefully, but could not find in its configuration any 

 evidence of such. A couple of hundred yards distant I found a fort cut 

 through by a very ancient mountain road. Is it possible that two ex- 

 isted in such close proximity ? 



The gentlemen who preceded me in the examination of these caves 

 appeared very doubtful as to the finding of the skull. 1 questioned 

 Mr. Kane and two of his labourers very closely on the subject, and 



E. I. A. PROC. VOL. X. L 



