Dr Hibbcrt on the Discovery of' the Fossil Elk. 21 



quently discovered stuck in the soft ground of swamps or 

 shallow pools. An animal of this kind, languid from disease, 

 sinks deep in the marsh to which it may have been accustom- 

 ed to repair, and not possessing strength sufficient to extricate 

 itself, is usually left in this state to perish. Hence a very 

 plausible hypothesis may account for the circumstances under 

 which the elk is usually found. The animal, during sickness, 

 either in company with the herd to which it is attached, or 

 apart from its companions, may have frequented a familiar 

 watering-spot, in order to quench its thirst, and sinking in the 

 soft marly substance which has accumulated rounduhe margin 

 of the lake, may have in vain exerted its limbs, enfeebled by dis- 

 ease, to disengage itself, and in this situation have actually died. 

 Some of its bones may have been dissipated by the action of 

 the atmosphere, and other natural causes ; some may have been 

 borne away by carnivorous animals ; while the remaining num- 

 ber may have owed their preservation to rains, which had wash- 

 ed them deeper in the lake, where they would be gradually 

 enveloped by shell-marl in its process of filling up the basin. 

 Such a view of the case is, in fact, attended with much fewer 

 difficulties than if we resort to a cause so adventitious as that 

 of an overwhelming flood, or any other expedient of this kind, 

 as that the animal had been drowned, while attempting to 

 elude the pursuit of its enemies ; for Professor Buckland 

 has announced, that this last opinion is entertained by Mr 

 Weaver. 



The next question suggested is purely speculative: — From 

 what cause has this animal become extinct in the British 

 islands ? 



Sir Thomas Molyneux conceived, that a sort of distemper, 

 or pestilential murrain, might have cut off the Irish elks ; 

 and, connecting this view with the remains of many of them 

 being found in one place, he supposed, that, as these animals 

 had lived together in herds, they had died together in numbers. 

 Headduces, in support of this view, a passage from Scheffer 

 relative to the distemper which, at times, carries off whole 

 herds of the rein deer. All this may be fair reasoning enough. 

 It is, however, questionable, if the human race has not occa- 

 sionally proved as formidable as a pestilence in exterminating, 



