MEGACEROS HIBERNICUS. 465 
the lacustrine shell-marl beneath the peat or bog earth. 
The most instructive and precise account of the situ- 
ation in which the remains of the M/egaceros have been 
found in Ireland, is contained in the ‘ Philosophical Tyrans- 
actions,’ vol. xxxiv. p. 122, in a letter from Mr. James 
Kelly, dated Downpatrick, Dec. 22nd, 1725. He says, 
“For the first three feet we met with a fuzzy kind of earth, 
that we call moss, proper to make turf for fuel; then we 
find a stratum of gravel about half a foot ; under which, 
for about three feet more, we find a more kindly moss, 
that would make a more excellent fuel ; this is all together 
mixed with timber, but so rotten that the spade cuts it as 
easily as it does the earth. Under this, for the depth of 
three inches, we find leaves, for the most part oaken, that 
appear fair to the eye, but will not bear a touch. This 
stratum we find sometimes interrupted with heaps of seed, 
which seem to be broom or furze seed ; in other places in 
the same stratum we find sea-weed, and other things as 
odd to be at that depth. Under this appears a stratum of 
blue clay, half a foot thick, fully mixed with shells; 
then appears the right marl, commonly two, three, or four 
feet deep, and in some places much deeper, which looks 
like buried lime, or the lime that tanners throw out of 
their lime-pits, only that it is fully mixed with shells,— 
such as the Scots call ‘ fresh-water wilks.’ Among’ this 
marl, and often at the bottom of it, we find very great 
horns, which we, for want of another name, call ‘ Elk- 
horns.’ We have also found shanks and other bones of 
these beasts in the same place.” 
The head and antlers, described and figured by Molyneux 
in the ‘ Philosophical Transactions’ for 1697, lay about five 
feet under ground: “ the first pitch was of earth, the next 
HOE 
