Batt—Fossil Mammalia of Ireland. 339 
the Ballynamintra Cave, together with proofs of man’s presence. Although it sur- 
vived in Scotland up to the year 1159, neither history nor tradition record its 
former presence in Ireland; but judging from the remarkable condition of preser- 
vation in which some of the antlers have been found, it is difficult to attribute to 
them a very high antiquity. 
From the discoveries made in the Shandon Caves, it has been concluded that 
the reindeer lived in pleistocene times, together with the mammoth and 
bear; possibly, however, the actual stratum containing its bones may have been 
more recent than those in which the mammoth and bear were found. No doubt 
whatever exists as to its having grazed together with the Irish elk on the margins 
of ancient lakes in which they both became entombed, as at Ballybetagh, near 
Kiltiernan, county Dublin, where very fine antlers were obtained; some of which 
are now preserved in this Museum. 
Another fine specimen in this Museum was found in the year 1861, at Ash 
bourne, county Dublin, 5 feet from the surface, below peat and clay, and lying on 
blue marl and clay. Others have been obtained in Lough Gur, and on the banks 
of the Shannon, in the county of Limerick. ‘Two perfect skulls, with antlers 
attached, were obtained as far back as the year 1741, in the bog of Ballyguiry, 
county Waterford: The remains found in the Shandon Cave, already referred to, 
belonged, according to Dr. Leith Adams, to between thirty and forty individuals. 
This is a small number when compared with that indicated by the discovery of a 
thousand antlers in a cave in Glamorganshire, as recorded by Sir Charles Lyell. 
Of the several existing varieties of reindeer, the one to which all the Irish 
examples must be referred is the barren-ground or Arctic Caribou, in which the 
antlers are slender and rounded, as contrasted with the more massive and flattened 
beam of the horns of the Great or Wooland Caribou, which is found in eastern 
Canada and the Rocky Mountains. 
As in most other species of deer, the left antlers, with the frontal snag, are 
more strongly developed than are the right. 
The largest Irish antlers measure 3 feet 7 inches round the curve, and have 
a span of 3 feet at the tips. 
7.—Tue Witp Boar. 
Sus scrofa, ferus (?) 
Owing to the absence of pig bones in the older deposits, it has been doubted 
whether this animal should be regarded as truly indigenous. In other words, it 
has been suggested that the herds of wild pigs which, according to ancient his- 
torians, formerly infested the woods and forests of Ireland, were all derived from 
an introduced stock. ' 
