Eaplorations in the Bone Cave of Ballynamintra. 185 
left to right towards these swallow holes, and in their vicinity the lower strata 
dipped likewise towards them, and appeared to be mixed with each other and with 
rounded stones. 
On both sides of the cave were water-worn crevices in the walls, often empty or 
but partially filled, which seem to have served as channels for drainage after the 
centre of the cave had been filled up. 
At ten feet from the cave’s mouth, on the right, a fissure in the limestone 
commenced at a high level and sloped down to the swallow holes at the entrance. 
It formed a channel down which the calcareous tufa ran, as hereafter described. 
This and other fissures yielded numerous bones and some implements, generally 
embedded in a loose, dark earth, or cemented into a breccia by the calcareous tufa. 
In cross-section D the arched part of the roof is shown to terminate in a 
pendant point or ridge, to the right of which it rises into one of those irregular 
shafts or “chimneys” which probably once served as channels for water from 
above, its sides being worn. Under this chimney the inhabitants of the cave 
might have resided, even when the main part of the cave was filled with 
accumulations. Here on the rock-surface, at ten to eleven feet inside the cave, 
and from six to twelve inches above the upper stratum, are a number of short 
transverse markings or scorings in a film of stalactite. They appear to be 
artificial, but cannot be recent, for when they were discovered the deposits had 
accumulated to such a height in the cave that this “chimney chamber” could 
only have been reached from without by a small animal.* 
Further proofs that it was a special resort of the human inhabitants are afforded 
by the quantity of charcoal found in the neigbourhood of the chimney in the 
upper strata, and by a hammer-stone found here in the grey earth (Plate XIIL., 
fig. 11), which bears the clearest marks of human use. 
The roof of the cave, as stated above, is arched and worn smooth. After 
dipping rapidly inwards for the first three feet, it becomes then nearly horizontal. 
From the fourteenth to the twenty-second foot the roof of the main tunnel dips 
gently inwards and is flattened from right to left, being still water-worn. On 
no part of the roof mentioned hitherto is there any stalactite, but a mere recent 
film. From about the twentieth foot inwards the roof is more irregular, being 
covered with a deep, hard coat of the cale tufa now adhering to it, though this 
limy matter must have formed upon the top of the earthy strata, which beyond 
twenty-four feet from the entrance nearly touched the roof. The little remaining 
space was completely filled with the calcareous coating, except that two arched 
tunnels or water-ducts, only large enough to admit a fox or rabbit, traversed it, 
dipping outwards from the inner cavity to be described hereafter, 
* Mr. Kinahan on inspecting these scorings considered them to be artificial, but Professor Leith Adams 
and the Rev. James Graves, who saw them subsequently, expressed doubts on the matter. 
21 
