314 Account of the Proceedings of the 



points to this view, and observes that the explanation he proposes 

 will apply equally to the facts seen. Whatever hypothesis we may 

 adopt, in order to approach the truth in this matter, we must 

 certainly bear in mind the scratches often so common among the 

 pebbles themselves, as well as those upon the rocks beneath the 

 gravel and blocks, as if there had sometimes been a grating of 

 the harder parts of the mass upon each other, after its general de- 

 posit. This accumulation is often in distinct layers, its parts some- 

 times arranged in the manner observable upon beaches, while at the 

 same time it is obvious that any rolling about of the pebbles, by 

 breaker action, would speedily obhterate the scratches both on the 

 pebbles and the rocks beneath. While this is true in some districts, 

 and is more particularly worthy of attention over great flats, or floors 

 of subjacent rock, sloping in various directions at exceedingly small 

 ano-les, as is to be seen over the great central plain of Ireland, at 

 other times we find huge blocks of rock perched about upon mountain- 

 summits, with scratches beneath and adjacent to them, as if we saw 

 the very instruments which made them. These blocks, however, 

 occur in situations which appear to shew that they have been brought 

 across deep valleys, as if ice-borne, and when the relative level of sea 

 and land was very different from that which it now is, though we 

 have only to look to comparatively recent geological times for their 

 transport. 



A memoir was communicated by Professor Oldham, bearing upon 

 the later geological changes which have been effected upon the area 

 occupied by the British islands, as also upon the climate of the time. 

 He announced the discovery of the undoubted remains of the reindeer 

 (Cervus tarandus), in peat, marl, and clay, near Kiltiernan, in the 

 county of Dublin, in company with numerous antlers of the Irish elk 

 (Mcgaceros). The evidence on this head is valuable, more particu- 

 larly when added to the inference of Professor Owen, in his Report 

 on British Fossil Mammalia, that these animals once existed in our 

 islands, and to the statement of Dr Mantell respecting the remains 

 of reindeer found in the Isle of Wight. Two other Irish specimens, 

 in bad preservation, had previously been under the notice of Mr Ball 

 of Dublin. The value of this undoubted occurrence of the reindeer 

 in Ireland will be at once apparent to those who remember the views 

 taken by Professor Edward Forbes, and published in the Memoirs of 

 the Geological Survey, respecting the comparatively recent separation 

 of the British islands, by elevation of the mass and subsequent sea 

 action, from the main continent, thus cutting off the animals and 

 plants which emanated thence from the remains of the parent stock. 

 And this disco verv is of the more value, when we connect it with the 

 inferences to be drawn from the mixture of the reindeer-bones with 

 those of the Megaceros. 



Mr Mallet stated, in another memoir, that, having been struck with 



