GREAT IRISH DEER—STELLERS SEA-COW. 245 
in a brownish clay. This deposit also was the product of a time 
when the climate was mild. It is a true lake-sediment, with 
seams of clay and fine sand, the latter having been brought down 
by heavy rainfall from the hills, just as at the present day. 
Now, we have to consider how these Great Deer got buried in 
this deposit. How did they get drowned? They may have gone 
into the lakes to escape from wolves, or possibly to escape from 
ancient Britons (but that is still doubtful). Perhaps they went 
into the water to wallow, as is usual with deer, or they may have 
ventured to swim the lakes (see p. 19). To enter the lake from 
a sandy shore would be easy enough, but, on reaching the other 
side, they might find a soft mud instead, into which their small 
feet would sink ; and the more they plunged and struggled, the 
worse became their plight, until at last, weary and exhausted, the 
heavy antlers pressed their heads down under the water, and 
they were drowned. 
It does not follow, according to this theory, that either the 
entire animal ought to be found, or even its legs, sticking in the 
clay. For a few days it might remain so, but the motion of 
the waters of the lake would sway the body to and fro, while the 
gases due to decomposition would render it buoyant, and perhaps 
raise it bodily off the bottom. Then it might float before the 
wind, its head hanging down, till it reached the lee-side of the lake. 
Then the antlers would get fastened in mud near the shore, thus 
mooring the body until at last so much of the flesh of the neck 
had decayed that the body got separated from it, leaving the 
head and antlers near the shore. 
Nearly a hundred heads had been found in this lake previous 
to Mr. Williams’s explorations, and yet scarcely six skeletons. 
At first it is somewhat puzzling to account for this scarcity of 
skeletons compared with heads; but very likely the bodies, minus 
their heads, were carried right out of the lake, down a river, and 
perhaps reached the sea or got stranded somewhere down the 
river in such a way that the bones were never covered up. But 
