302 BRITISH MAMMALS 



deposits of North Wales, Northern and North-eastern, Eastern 

 and Central England, as far south as Essex, In Scotland the 

 remains are abundant, especially in the east, south, and south- 

 west. In Ireland its existence is argued from some fragments of 

 antler and bones found in County Tyrone. 



The elk is a very isolated, and in some respects specialised, 

 form of deer. Such resemblances as it does offer to other 

 creatures of the same group lie in the direction of the American 

 deer of the sub-family Dorcelaphirice. The bones of the 

 side toes are (as already mentioned) like those of the rein- 

 deer, the roe, and the American group ; only their lower 

 portions are retained. The antlers are very big. Their beams 

 grow horizontally and almost at right angles to the line of the 

 neck ridge and forehead. The pedicle is very low. The round 

 unbranched stem or beam of the horn is rather long in some 

 extinct species, and then palmates broadly. The palmated part 

 of the horn is divided conspicuously into two main portions. 

 One, the nearest to the skull, contains about five prongs in the 

 mature male. The palmation then continues in a direction 

 almost at right angles with the round, lower stem of the antler, 

 and along the edge of this palmation project as many as twelve 

 or more prongs or points in well-developed antlers. It is 

 thought by that great authority, Mr. Lydekker, that there are 

 some slight resemblances in the arrangement of the elk's antlers 

 to the horns of the American group of deer. It is possible that 

 the elk may have originated in North America from a stock 

 which produced the American sub-family, itself a development, 

 very likely, of an Old World roebuck origin. 



As the elk has been so long banished from these islands as 

 a wild species it is not necessary to describe it any further. 

 Perhaps the British climate has changed disadvantageously from 

 the elk's point of view in ten thousand years, for attempts like 

 those made by the Duke of Bedford to acclimatise and reintro- 

 duce the elk have been unsuccessful, apparently for climatic 

 reasons. 



