Fossil Elk of the Isle of Man. 



29 



The skeleton of the large species of elk which is now in the 

 Museum of the University of Edinburgh, was found at the 

 farm of Balla Terson, in a basin of the shell variety of marl, 

 about 100 yards by 50 in extent, and situated in a wet hol- 

 low or morass, which is filled with aquatic plants, and sur- 

 rounded on all sides by fields of dry and fertile soil. 



The superficial stratum is peat of excellent quality, light 

 and fibrous, and containing a few trees of bog-timber. It is 

 six feet thick in the middle parts of the morass, but passes out 

 thin, into a black peaty turf towards the margin. Between it 

 and the marl a layer of fine bluish white earthy sand is inter- 

 posed, from two to three feet in thickness. The marl lies at 

 a depth of from seven to ten feet at the middle parts of the 

 pit, but, like the peat, becomes thin at the margin, and passes 

 out when within a foot and a half of the black till which forms 

 the surface crust. Nearly one-half of this deposit has been 

 worked during dry seasons, but I have never seen the pit 

 completely drained of its water. According to the calculation 

 of the workmen, the bed of marl in the middle parts of it 

 is from eleven to fourteen feet thick, independent of the layers 

 of turf and sand which I have noticed. A tranverse section 

 of the deposit may therefore be delineated thus : 



Bot'om of Lake. 



Peat, 4 to 6 f 



^hite >and, 

 Marl, 11 to 



When the workmen penetrate at any time through the 

 marl, the pit is suddenly inundated by water springing up 

 from below, from the sand and gravel which form the subsoil. 



This marl is highly fibrous, and somewhat laminar in its 

 structure, and when dry, is as light, and nearly as white as 

 chalk. The shells are delineated white upon a darker ground, 

 and are seen by separating the fibrous layers, but are seldom, 

 if ever, found in their original state. I question much whether 

 shells exist in all parts of the basin, certainly not at its margin. 

 In this basin vast quantities of bones of the large species of 

 elk are found. The workmen have constantly met with them 



