Dr Hibbert on the Discover?/ of the Fossil Elk. 2J 



But tbe apparent margin of another bed of shell-marl in 

 Ballaugh from which the elk has been taken, was not so much 

 concealed as the middle of it. This deposit appeared com- 

 paratively recent. The lowest stratum which was expos- 

 ed had a depth of three feet ; it was considerably mixed with 

 sand and small pebbles of clay-slate and quartz, the debris of 

 the neighbouring hills; and in this mass several bones of the 

 elk have at various times been found imbedded. Above this 

 marl was a deposit, one foot thick, of the same substance, 

 though mixed with more sand, and containing some little ve- 

 getable matter. In a still higher bed, a layer of sand succeed- 

 ed, one foot thick, mixed with white quartz pebbles : then a 

 layer of drift peat, and another of black mould, each six inches 

 thick, and over the whole, a thinner coat of drift peat. 



This comparatively recent origin of the deposit in which the 

 elk is found, may be connected with another remarkable cir- 

 cumstance, yet remaining to be noticed. The limited district 

 named Ballaugh, from which the Isle of Man elks are most 

 abundantly obtained, is nothing more than a corruption of the 

 name Bala Lough. In fact, a lough or lake subsisted, of so re- 

 cent a date, as to be actually described in a map of the Isle of 

 Man, published in the year 1656, by James Chaloner. (See 

 Plate II. Fig. 2, where part of it is copied.) And as the elk is 

 found imbedded at such a small depth below the surface of this 

 lake, which has been lately filled up, two important ques- 

 tions connected with the natural history of this animal, naturally 

 suggest themselves : first, Have we any evidence from histori- 

 cal records that this animal was well known at a period com- 

 paratively recent ? and, secondly, Does any similar animal exist 

 in Europe, or elsewhere, at the present day ? These questions 

 I shall consider on another opportunity. 



The foregoing investigation is one that I consider of no 

 small importance. If the elk can be thus shown to be decid- 

 edly postdihivian, may not a just suspicion be attached to the 

 recently assigned antediluvian origin of various other animals, 

 especially when, like those of the Curragh, they are found in 

 districts which may, at least in part, be proved to be diluvial? 

 Geologists would do well to pause before they admit, as an es- 

 tablished fact, what yet remains to be confirmed ; and I do not 

 hesitate to add, that the circumstances under which the hyena 



