246 EXTINCT MONSTERS. 



in the Limerick bogs heads and skeletons were often found 

 together. In that district the lakes were probably shallow and 

 with but a feeble current, and so the body never floated away. 

 This explanation by Mr. Williams seems satisfactory. 



He reports that the female skulls were rarely met with. Either 

 they were more timid in swimming lakes, or, having no antlers, 

 they may have succeeded in getting out, or the care of their 

 young ones may have kept them out of the lakes during the 

 summer months. The clay in which the remains occur is suc- 

 ceeded by another bed of pure clay, which 7iever yields any skulls 

 or bones. This, Mr. Williams thinks, was deposited at a time 

 when the climate was more or less severe, and the musk-ox, 

 reindeer^ and other arctic animals came down from more northern 

 regions, even down to the south of France. He concludes that 

 this period marks the extinction of the Great Deer in Ireland, 

 whether rightly or wrongly it is hard to say. Many observers are 

 inclined to think that it lived on to a later period. An interest- 

 ing fact, having some bearing on the question, is this : that the 

 bones in some cases even yet retain their marrow in the state of 

 a fatty substance, which will burn with a clear lambent flame. 

 !Pvidence such as this seems to point to a more recent date for 

 its extinction. 



Steller's Sea-Cow.^ 



The Sirenia of the present day form a remarkable group o( 

 aquatic herbivorous animals, really quite distinct from the 

 Cetacea (whales and dolphins), although sometimes erroneously 

 classed with them. In the former group are the Dugong and the 

 Manatee. These creatures pass their whole life in the water, 

 inhabiting the shallow bogs, estuaries, and lagoons, and large 

 rivers, but never venturing far away from the shore. They browse 



' For fuller information, see the G-Jological Magazine, decaJe iii. vol. ii. 

 p. 412. Paper by Dr. Henry Woodward, F.R.S. 



