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ON A RECENT FIND OF IRISH ELK BONES, &c, 



IN BELFAST, 



BY R. M. YOUNG, B.A., M.R.I.A. 



(Read before the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society, 



6th March, 1894.) 



In connection with the great system of main drainage which 

 is now approaching completion in Belfast, excavations for an 

 intercepting sewer were made in January of this year under 

 the footpaths on the east side of High Street and Castle Place. 

 A quantity of human bones were dug up opposite St. George's 

 Church, where the burying ground of the previous Church of 

 St. Patrick had extended, but it was not till the workmen 

 reached Castle Place that anything of special interest was 

 found. On the 18th January an intelligent workman brought 

 me three jaw-bones which had been taken from a depth of 

 seven feet under the footpath at Mr. Watson's shop, No. 10, 

 Castle Place. Prof. R. O. Cunningham, M.D., kindly ex- 

 amined these bones, and pronounced them to be those of an 

 Irish Elk, Horse and Sheep. Opposite Messrs. Hart & 

 Churchill's shop quite a number of jaws of the Irish Elk 

 were turned up, with some fragments of leg and rib bones ; 

 these were associated with branches of trees, probably Willow, 

 and were 6 feet 10 inches under the surface of the footpath 

 flags. No other bones appeared till the excavation reached 

 Bank L,ane, where Mr. S. F. Milligan, M.R.I.A., secured some 

 bones, apparently of the horse and dog, which he has kindly 

 presented to the Museum. 



As the fine specimen of the Great Irish Deer {Cervus 

 giganteus) in the Belfast Museum is well known, I may 

 merely mention that this splendid animal surpassed in size 

 the largest living deer {Cervus canadensis). Its antlers were 

 sometimes more than eleven feet from tip to tip, whilst those 

 of the Moose are only four feet. The most recent local dis- 

 covery of Irish Elk bones seems to be that described by Mr. 

 R. LI. Praeger on 16th February, 1892, when he exhibited at a 

 Field Club meeting a skull found in the preceding December 

 in excavating near the Spencer Basin. It was in the centre 

 of a peat bed, three feet thick, with a depth of thirty feet of 

 estuarine clay above. In the same bed of peat at the Alex- 

 andra Dock, bones of the Red Deer and Wild Boar are recorded 

 by Mr. Praeger. This present find of Irish Elk bones seems 



