22 Dr Hibbert on the Discovery of the Fossil Elk. 



from various districts, whole races of wild animals ; though 

 we are certainly short of historical evidence, when we would 

 prove that this has been the case with regard to the elks in the 

 Isle of Man and Ireland. 



These are the various observations which occurred to me 

 after I had examined the situation in which the elks of the 

 Isle of Man are discovered near the Peel Eiver ; but, as I 

 was also informed, that they were still more abundantly found 

 in a northerly part of the country, to which geologists, from 

 its peculiar character, would now give the name of diluvial, 

 I was anxious to examine this district. But, before describ- 

 ing the result of my investigation, it may be expedient to ad- 

 vert very briefly to the general distinction that Professor 

 Buckland draws between diluvium and alluvium. 



In a paper which I published in the last number of this 

 Journal, it was stated, that " Professor Buckland had proposed 

 to separate two classes of phenomena which were previously 

 referred to one common cause. Of these, the first is, the ge- 

 neral dispersion of gravel and loam over hills and elevated 

 plains, as well as valleys, which he conceives to be the effect 

 of an universal and transient deluge. To the gravel and loam 

 thus said to be dispersed, the name of diluvium, in reference 

 to their alleged cause, has been given. The second class of 

 phenomena includes the partial collection of gravel at the foot 

 of torrents, and of mud at the mouths and along the course 

 of rivers, this partial collection of gravel, mud, or sand, being 

 distinguished from the first class by the name of alluvium. 

 Thus, we are said to have deposits of diluvium or of alluvium, 

 the first of these being referable to the action of an universal de- 

 luge, the latter (or the alluvium) to that of existing causes. 11 

 Into the reasonableness of this view I shall not at present in- 

 quire, my object being l-ather to show, that, as Professor 

 Buckland claims all animals which are discovered in diluvial 

 deposits, as antediluvian animals, the fossil elk is found under 

 circumstances that completely prevent it from boasting so re- 

 mote a date of origin. 



The strata of clay slate and mica slate, which occupy an 

 area of the Isle of Man amounting to almost three-fourths of 

 jt, have a line of direction that most frequently extends from 



