PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 99 



fleeting, attach themselves below the periphery ; in which event, the spire is wont 

 to become more elevated, and its more rounded turns to swell out, in some degree, 

 above the suture." 



I hope I have succeeded in establishing sufficiently good claims for this shell, to 

 induce naturalists to give it a more attentive investigation ; and it is a subject of so 

 much interest, that it will, I think, amply reward them. 



At the same time, as I before observed, I obtained lanthina pallida. This very 

 rare species has only twice before been found on our coasts once at Miltown 

 Malby and once at Kilkee. The specimens of Spirula Peronii which I found were 

 all dead. This beautiful shell has only, I believe, occurred five times on the Irish 

 coast, and but once in England, on the Cornish coast. It has been provisionally 

 excluded from the list of British Mollusca, " because," as Dr. Fleming observes, 

 u we have to determine their capability of living in our seas before their right to a 

 place in our Fauna can be established." 



Large numbers of the Velella were also thrown ashore in company with the 

 lanthinae. When floating on the surface, with the sail or membrane raised, drift- 

 ing before the wind, they present an interesting spectacle, which I observed to 

 advantage when rowing in the bay in one of the small canoes or coracles peculiar 

 to the west coast of Ireland. The Velella when captured throws off a very deep- 

 purple, viscous liquid, which stains the hand much more intensely than that'exuded 

 by the lanthina ; indeed, I believe, some naturalists have expressed it as their 

 opinion that the purple colour of the lanthina was probably derived from devouring 

 these Velella?. 



I omitted mentioning that I found the Lepas pectinata and Vitrea vitrina attached 

 to numerous specimens both of lanthina communis and I. pallida. A few of these 

 Cirripedes were fixed almost on the apex of the shell, but by far the greater number 

 were attached immediately below the umbilicus. 



Mr. Wakeman gave the following continuation of his remark^ on the remains of 

 animals, &c., at Dunshaughlin : 



A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of presenting to this Society a couple of 

 heads of the ancient Irish cow, found, with a vast accumulation of animal remains, 

 round what had been an artificial island, in a lake (now dried up) in the vicinity of 

 Dunshaughlin. Of late years several large heads of similar remains have been dis- 

 covered in various parts of the country, and it is to be regretted that our Society 

 does not possess a selection from these interesting relics of ruins of animals which 

 anciently existed in our island, and some of which, at least, have become extinct. 

 The first, and, perhaps, the most important, of these discoveries was made, about 

 twelve years ago, at Dunshaughlin, in the county of Meath. The locality is well 

 known in Irish history as Lough Gabor, a name now softened to Lagore, and may 

 be described as a boggy flat, about one mile and a half in length by about a mile in 

 breadth. The lake, properly speaking, has not existed in the memory of any living 

 person ; but in winter time, after heavy rains, the greater portion of the bog is 

 covered with water. A slight eminence, crowned by a solitary tree, is still called 

 u The Island ;" and it was about this spot that the animal remains, amounting to 

 so many hundreds of cart-loads, were found. The bones were those of cows, deer, 

 swine, sheep, horses, and, I believe, of hogs. Several human skulls and other 

 bones were also observed, bearing testimony to the struggles which the annals 

 inform us took place round the island of Lough Gabor. Intermixed with the bones 

 were found an immense quantity of antiquities, consisting of spear-heads, swords, 

 knives, brooches, combs, &c. ; and these articles, so highly interesting to the anti- 

 quary, are scarcely less so to the naturalist, as, by an examination of their form 

 and style of ornamentature, some conclusion may be arrived at as to the date of 

 the deposit. From the fact of the frontal bone in most of the skulls, which had 

 belonged to the lower animals, having been fractured, apparently by the blow of a 

 hatchet, many of which instruments were found among the debris, there can be 

 but little doubt that the creatures to which they had belonged had been killed as 

 food by the occupants of "The Island." How much, then, is it to be regretted 

 that no tolerable collection of these very interesting remains is known to exist. By 

 a careful collection and examination of such subjects, much light might be thrown 



