or Fossil Elk of Ireland. 303 



popotamus, as well as other races which are equally supposed 

 to have been destroyed at the universal deluge. Into the 

 further questions which may arise from this conclusion, I shall 

 not at present stay to inquire ; as, for instance, whether the 

 Irish elk was the sole survivor of this catastrophe, or whether 

 his contemporaries, as well as himself, were not severally of 

 less antiquity than is usually supposed. I shall prefer con- 

 tinuing my narrative without reference to the popular geolo- 

 gical speculations of the day, which have hitherto been most 

 premature. 



2. The Cervus Euryceros was the eontemporaryofthe earliest 

 inhabitants of the human race dwelling in Europe. 



Remains of this animal, for instance, have been described 

 by Professor Goldfuss of Bonn, as having been found in the 

 Duchy of Cleves at a very inconsiderable depth from the sur- 

 face of the ground in the same drain with urns and stone axes. 

 And in Lancashire, the same Cervus has been discovered en- 

 tombed in a bed of turf similar to that from which rude canoes, 

 in the vicinity of the site, have beeen extracted. 



3. The Cervus Euryceros or Fossil Elk of Ireland, so far 

 from being an animal, the existence of which is referable to a 



remote antiquity, actually lived in the wilds of Prussia so late 

 as the year 1550, and perhaps later. 



For this curious fact, at the knowledge of which I have but 

 lately arrived, I am indebted to a scarce folio work entitled, 

 " Cosmographiae Universalis Lib. VI. in quibus, juxta certioris 

 lidei scriptorum traditionem describuntur, omniu habitabilis 

 orbis partium ppriae'q. dotes. Regionum Topographical effi- 

 gies. Terrae ingenia, quibus fit ut tam difFeretes et uarias 

 specie res et animatas et inanimatas, ferat. Animalium peregri- 

 norum naturae et picturae, &c. &c. Autore Sebast. Munstero." 

 The date of the publication is given at the end of the work, 

 " Basileae apud Henrichum Petri, Mense Martio Arino Salutis 

 M.D.L." Sebastian Munster, the author of this work, which 

 he dedicated to the Emperor Charles the Fifth of Germany, 

 was one of the early reformers, celebrated for his knowledge 

 of the Hebrew and Oriental languages, and for his comments 

 on the Old Testament, whence he was named The German Es- 



