Tinsley (1976) and Lyons and Evans (1976) ahve suggested that the near-earth ring current during the recovery phase consists largely of helium ions. This report describes an indirect method of identifying the ring current ions, using the ions found at low altitude beneath the radiation belts (Moritz, 1972; Hovestadt et al., 1972). The energy spectrum of the low-altitude ions depends upon the energy spectrum and the relative abundance of the various ionic species as a function of altitude. Because the pertinent cross sections differ greatly between hydrogen and helium and the near-earth portion of the ring current is the primary source of the low-altitude ions, the low-altitude ion energy spectrum strongly depends on the ionic identity of the near-earth ring current in the energy range 10--100 keV. One set of measurements exists of low-altitude ions during storm recovery (Mizera and Blake, 1973). The energy spectra observed do indeed suggest the absence of hydrogen in the near-earth ring current late in a recovery phase as proposed by Tinsley (1976) and Lyons and Evans (1976). However, a definitive test will require extensive low-altitude measurements throughout a storm period, preferably in conjunction with ring current spectral measurements.