149 



CHAPTER XXII. 



EUMINAN'IS coulilllicd : DEER — UEINDEER IXQUIRY INTO THEIR ORIGIN IN NORTH AMERICA, 



GREENLAND, SriTZBERGEN, &C. 



CERvm.E. Deer. (Map 32.) The fossil remains of Deer are niuncrons. Upwards of sixty 

 species, iucluding one or two extinct genera, of Deer, have been described, but a very large de- 

 duction must be made from this ninnber for double, treble, and (puidruplc employment of the same 

 species. The oldest remains are from the fresh-water mioceue in the department of Loiret, and 

 nearly corresiiond with the Muntjac of the Sunda Archipelago ; but although some remains have 

 been found in the miocene formations, it is in more recent deposits that the greatest number have 

 been discovered. Lund discovered remains of a sj^eeies in the caves of Brazil, and the caves of 

 Europe have yielded abundant remains of diffei'ent species, among which those of the Red Deer 

 the Fallow-deer, the Roebuck, the Moose, and the Reindeer, are most frequent. Of the latter in 

 particular, numerous bones have been found in Europe as far south as the south of France, in 

 post-glacial deposits of an age contemporaneous with man. 



In Austria remains have been found of a large deer somewhat similar to the Reindeer, but 

 different from it in not having a brow antler, — and Owen supposes it to have been intermediate 

 between the Reindeer and the Elk (Moose). Two other extinct species also, without the brow 

 antler, but in which the antler is not palmate, have been described by Gervais from beds of 

 A'olcanic alluvium in the south of France. 



The existing species of Deer are chiefly confined to the northern hemisphere, and most of them 

 frequent forests. There are none in Australia, nor are any found in Africa Proper, i.e. south of the 

 Sahara. The Fallow Deer, indeed, is found in North Africa in the Mediterranean District, but 

 that cannot be reckoned anything but a part of Europe located in Africa. There are nine in South 

 America ; North America has eight or nine ; Europe and Northern Asia, six ; and tlie East Indies 

 and the Indian Archipelago, nineteen or twenty (Java two, Sumatra three, and Borneo three). 

 In these three islands, too, is found the Muntjac, a small deer with largely developed upjDer canines, 

 which forms the natural passage from the true Deer to the Musk-Deer. 



Irish Ei.k. (Cervvs Megaceros.) This extinct species was probably the finest cervine animal 

 that ever existed. Its horns have been found to measure ten feet apart from tip to tip. Not- 

 withstanding its name, it is not peculiar to Ireland, but is found in England as well as cm tlic 

 Continent. 



It is now ver}' generally believed, although good authorities still demur to it, that whetlit-r the 

 former inhabitants of Ireland actually came in contact with it or not, it lived at a time wlien 

 man was already in existence. It may be, nev<?rtheless, and j^robably was the case, that if it 

 was a contemporary of man, it had become extinct before the Irish had a knowledge of letters; 

 at any rate, they have not left us the only indication of their acquaintance with it which we could 



