i9o6. Bakejr. — Mitchelstown Caves. 3I 
Apjohn carried out a most elaborate and painstaking survey 
to points considerably beyond the second great cavity, now 
known as the House of I^ords," but failed to reach 
OXeary's Cave," the key of the further ramifications, or to 
explore the tunnels connected with " The River." His plan, 
worked out to scale, and showing the differences of level with 
great minuteness, remained the only map of the cave until M. 
Martel's survey in 1895. Meanwhile, various adventurers had 
got to more distant points, particularly to the long chain of 
caverns running east to Brogden's, at the end of which M. 
Martel's chart stops. The French explorer does not seem to 
have broken any fresh ground ; but his plan, which appeared 
in this Journal, April, 1896, with an account of his visit, was a 
brilliant achievement, especially when the short time at his 
disposal is considered, six hours for the whole of the cavern. 
Parts of this chart were only hastily sketched in, either from 
a rapid survey or from information supplied by the guide, as 
M. Martel explained to me in a conversation a few weeks ago, 
and errors of detail were, under these conditions, unavoidable. 
For instance, " O'Leary's Cave" is much larger than appears 
on the plan, and the Chimney" is not situated at the far end 
of a passage, but actually opens in the floor of " OXeary's 
Cave." The caves running east, again — O'Callaghan's and 
Brogden's — are not such a simple series of straight passages 
as they seem on the chart ; our guide had considerable diffi- 
culty in threading his way among the various bifurcations. 
As will transpire later, there is a mystery connected with the 
name of " Cust's Cave," the real Cust's being in a totally 
different part of the series, and a different chamber altogether 
in shape. Unfortunately, we did not go prepared to carry out 
any survey, believing that all this had been done ; so that we 
can at the most point out some places where the existing plans 
are at fault. We were also unfortunate in not being prepared 
to take a large number of photographs, the accounts we had 
read not leading us to anticipate the actual grandeur and 
extent of the scenery. M. Martel compares the Mitchelstown 
Cave with such famous continental caverns as those of Adels- 
berg, Padirac, Dargilan and Han-sur-L,esse, and it comes off" 
but poorly in such a comparison. I have seen his lantern 
slides of these caves, and after exploring all the most 
A 4 
