220 Explorations in the Bone Cave of Ballynamintra. 
stalagmite was found in fragments.* The process of crystallization may be accom- 
panied by shrinkage, which causes the mass to crack. Another cause may be found 
in the subsequent removal of the bed on which the stalagmite originally rested. 
Water trickling down through the cracked floor, and washing away the mechanical 
deposit from beneath it, might, in time, have effected its total break up.. We find that 
the gravel had actually disappeared or been mixed with other deposits along the 
right side, as shown in sections A and B, ‘This may be connected with the forma- 
tion of the adjoining swallow holes, which doubtless owed their origin to water from 
above, which sought a more downward direction to escape than its former course 
through the cave, when the general level of the lands in front became reduced. That 
these swallow holes received the drainage of the cave in times subsequent to the 
formation of the gravel stratum is shown by their containing lumps of stalagmite 
and gravel, and by the fact that the course of the calc tufa was traced down to 
them along a descending line of fissures. Nor do we only find the gravel bed re- 
duced where these orifices occur, but also the whole stalagmitic floor in the outer 
part of the cave broken in pieces, except the undisturbed bench of it that lay along 
the side furthest from the swallow holes. This bears out the idea that the break 
up of the stalagmite was completed by the gravel supporting it having been 
abstracted through these holes. 
It is not easy te assign an origin for the pale sandy earth in which the broken 
stalagmite lay embedded. Though containmg some amount of calcareous matter, 
it was not composed of disintegrated stalagmite, but rather of the detritus of old 
red sandstone. How far the intrusion of rain-water from the roof-openings, perco- 
lating under the stalagmite floor, removing its old support, and bringing in fresh 
detritus, was equal to produce the phenomena just described, must be admitted as 
questionable, or how far the breaking up of a stalagmite deposit may have been 
owing to shrinkage is also doubtful. It may, however, be concluded that if water 
brought about the degradation of this stalagmite floor, its action was not extremely 
violent, as testified by the total absence of rolling either on the blocks or on the 
animal remains. Some of the latter, moreover, showed that they belonged to the 
bear’s skeleton found in the stalagmite, as stated on page 202. 
This assemblage ot bears’ bones, from the great depth at which they were found, 
and from being embedded in well-washed gravelly sand, near the swallow-holes, 
sustain the inference that they were washed out of their original position on the 
breaking up of the stalagmite floor. Accordingly these bears’ bones may fairly be 
presumed to be of the age of the stalagmite, while others found in the same deposit 
with them may have been more recent. 
The presence in the pale sandy ¢arth of charcoal, and of the various other animal 
remains, including bones of pig and ox (the latter having a recent appearance), is 
difficult to be accounted for, unless we suppose that the cave was tenanted towards 
* See Fourth Report on Kent’s Cavern, pp. 51, 52, British Association, 1868. 
