[5] Arthur Young's _Tour in Ireland_; ed. by A. W. Hutton. 2 vols. Bell, 1892. See pages 464-465, vol. i. [Illustration: A GREAT PILLAR: MITCHELSTOWN CAVERN. _Photo by E. A. Baker._] [Illustration: A FAIRY LANTERN: MITCHELSTOWN CAVERN. _Photo by E. A. Baker_.] Dr. C. A. Hill and I visited the spot in August 1905, intending to go through all the accessible parts of the huge series now known collectively as Mitchelstown Cave, and also to examine the series referred to by Dr. Jameson, who had been unable to undertake their exploration. Our impression was that little or nothing was known of the latter series, and it was not until after our return from Ireland that we were startled and puzzled by turning up an account in _The Postchaise Companion_ (1805 ed., pp. 301, 302) of a cave in this place already known and celebrated thirty years before the discovery of the Mitchelstown Cave. The explanation probably is that the guides find one cave a more profitable investment than two. To show the second (or rather the first, since the other is the usurper) would involve twice as much labour, but would hardly bring in twice the income. Since 1833, then, the original cavern has been suppressed, so successfully that even the omniscient Baddeley never suspected that there are two series, although he had read Young's description and confused it with the other. Dr. Hill let me down a few feet into the old cave-mouth, just such a narrow slit as Young depicts; but we found that the rock was cut away immediately beneath, and without more hauling power, the only way to get down was to use a long ladder, and this we could not obtain. The guide told us that the hole led into nothing of any interest, and that the entrance had been used as a receptacle for deceased dogs and other excreta. This effectually took away any wish to pursue our researches in that direction for the present. Still, the old cave ought not to be lost sight of; and we propose, if no one else undertakes the work, to explore the lower series on some future visit to Ireland. The unscientific explorers of a hundred years ago may have left discoveries to future workers as important as those which remained for so many years after the early explorations in the neighbouring great cave.