S19. Dr Hibbert on the History of the Cervus Euryceros, 



within their range. The same writer also correctly remarks, 

 that the lateral expansion of the horns is such, that should 

 occasion require the animal to use them in his defence, their 

 extreme tips would easily reach beyond the remotest parts of 

 his body. 



6. The Cervus Euryceros was the ancient inhabitant of 

 the temperate regions of Europe. 



It is doubtful if this animal dwelt farther north on the Con- 

 tinent of Europe than the country south of the Baltic, where 

 his place began to be supplied by the Cervus alces or Nor- 

 wegian Elk. In Prussia, according to the testimony of 

 Munster, both these animals occurred ; the habitat of the 

 more northern animal commencing where the other was ceas- 

 ing. Whether the British Islands were ever to be regarded 

 as a similar joint habitat is doubtful. A solitary relic of the 

 Cervus alces is said to have been found in the Isle of Man, * 

 but as I could not learn, after much inquiry, that remains of 

 the true Cervus alces had been either before or since found 

 in the Island, the relics in question, supposing that they have 

 been accurately described, appear to be rather referable to 

 accidental circumstances. It is well known, for instance, that 

 in a very early period the Isle of Man was possessed by the 

 Northern Vikingr, who, in introducing among the people 

 whom they invaded their customs and laws, might have occa- 

 sionally brought over the products of the mother country, and 

 among them the Northern Elk, which, from the testimony of 

 Olaus Magnus, was domesticated and highly valued by the 

 Northmen as a beast of burden. We have, in fact, histori- 

 cal as well as other proofs to show, that certain races of animals 

 at present existing in other early Norwegian provinces, as in 



* This account I published on the authority of Mr Burman, a respect- 

 able surgeon and resident of Douglas, who himself saw a portion of the 

 horns, and conceived it to resemble the wood of the Norwegian Elk, with 

 which he was familiar, from a specimen of the same being in his posses- 

 sion. But on my visiting the island afterwards, the horns, whatever they 

 were, which Mr Burman failed in procuring, had certainly fled ; nor could 

 I obtain any satisfactory account of them, as such fossil relics were in ge- 

 neral surreptitiously disposed of, to obviate the paramount claims of poa- 

 session which were set up for them by the superior of the soil. 



