Mr. Weaver on the Fossil Elk of Ireland. 197 
my avocations last autumn in the north of Ireland, a discovery 
came to my knowledge that seemed likely to throw light on 
the subject, I proceeded to its investigation, intending, should 
the results be found deserving of attention, to place them on 
record. These results have proved the more interesting, as 
they apparently lead to the conclusion, that this magnificent 
animal lived in the countries in which its remains are now 
found, at a period of time which, in the history of the earth, 
can be considered only as modern. 
I had advanced thus far when I became apprised of an 
analogous discovery made last year in the west of Ireland, by 
the Rev. W. Wray Maunsell, archdeacon of Limerick ; which 
is not only confirmative of my own experience, but has the 
additional value of embracing particulars not hitherto noticed 
by any other observer. Mr. Maunsell’s researches, elucidated 
by the able assistance of Mr. John Hart, member of the Royal 
College of Surgeons, have been communicated from time to 
time to the Royal Dublin Society, in the form of letters, and 
have been entered upon their minutes; and it is to be hoped 
that a distinct publication on the subject may hereafter ap- 
pear, illustrated by a description of the splendid specimen of 
the skeleton of the animal, now deposited by the liberality of 
the reverend archdeacon in the museum of that Society. In 
the mean time I propose, after giving a concise account of my 
own inquiries, to refer briefly to the more prominent points in 
Mr. Maunsell’s discoveries, in as far as they bear immediately 
on the question of the ancient or modern origin of those re- 
mains. 
The spot which I examined is situated in the county of 
Down, about a mile and a half to the west of the village of 
Dundrum. That part of the country consists of an alternating 
series of beds of clay-slate and fine-grained grauwacké, with 
occasional subordinate rocks, which it is needless at present 
to mention; the whole distinguished by numerous small con- 
temporaneous veins of calcareous spar and quartz, and tra- 
versed in some places by true rake veins that are metalliferous. 
Hills of moderate elevation, from 150 to 300 feet high, are 
thus composed. In a concavity between two of these hills is 
placed the bog of Kilmegan, forming a narrow slip, which ex- 
tends about one mile in a nearly N. and S. direction. The 
natural hollow which it occupies appears formerly to have 
been a lake, which in, process of time became nearly filled 
by the continual growth and eet of marshy plants, and the 
consequent formation of peat. ‘The latter, however, from the 
flooded state of its surface, afforded little elegy as fuel, 
until the present marquis of Downshire caused a level to be 
brought 
