134 Df Hibbert on the Cervus Eitryceros, or Irish Elk. 



can certainly have very little information. But it may be asked, 

 if the disproportionate weight of the horns would not have had 

 a tendency to impede the motion of the animal, and thereby 

 induce obesity, and that, on this account, it might have trust- 

 ed to its means of escape from pursuers, less to the swiftness 

 of its footsteps, than to the marshes to which it was evidently 

 accustomed to resort ?* According to this view, the extinc- 

 tion of the Cervus Euryceros in the British Islands, would keep 

 pace with the obliteration of the ancient pools and lakes, where 

 its remains are now found. -f- 



These are all the observations that I have at present to of- 

 fer on the Cervus Euryceros, or Irish Elk. They have been 

 suggested by the interest which the important researches of 

 Professor Buckland have imparted to every circumstance con- 

 nected with the history of the extinct animals of the British 

 islands. But it is now incumbent upon me to observe, that 

 my dissertation does not materially affect the general con- 

 clusion to which this justly distinguished geologist has ar- 

 rived. The diluvial deposit of Europe, which has formed the 



* There is a Runic monument at St Michael's, in the Isle of Man, that, 

 in reference to this speculation, acquires some degree of interest: An ani- 

 mal of the deer kind, with broad horns, and represented as extremely large, 

 in comparison to other animals engraved on the same monument, is in the 

 act of being worried by a dog. 



f In connection with this view of the comparatively recent origin of the 

 Cervus Euryceros, I hasten to communicate the following most remarkable 

 intelligence, which I received from a scientific friend in Edinburgh, Dr 

 Milligan, though too late to be inserted in the body of this paper, which 

 had already gone to press. " You may feel interested to know, that in 

 Ireland, about nine months ago, there were dug up the skeletons of three 

 great elks, which have been recently articulated by Mr Hart of Dublin. 

 One of them measures eleven feet between the tips of the horns. Near 

 them, in a three feet stratum of marl, were found the skeletons of three 

 dogs, and at a little distance, were discovered the skeletons of several 

 men. My informer is an expert chemist. He analysed the bones, and 

 found them to consist of very nearly the same proportion of animal and 

 earthy matter as in hartshorn, only a little fluate of lime. The marrow 

 was still in the benes, and burnt brightly at the flame of a candle." It is 

 to be hoped that some further details may be published relative to so ex- 

 traordinary a discovery, particularly with regard to the circumstances un 

 der which the human skeletons were found. 



