^I^ Proceedings oj^Phtcosophtcal Societies. pJuNE, 



_.,^ .ji, *..fi. ».»'-._■.- _ ' ■ ■ — -,.,,.,,. nnno *.., .r, f,j..,:f 

 hoped, a distinct publication on the subject: but he gave some 

 account of them in the present paper, as they directly con- 

 firmed his own deductions. Mr. Weaver's researches were 

 made in the county of Down, which presents hills of 300 or 

 400 feet in height, consisting of alternate beds of clay-slate 

 and fine grained greywacke, traversed by many contempora- 

 neous veins of calcareous spar and quartz, and also intersected 

 by some true metalliferous rake veins. Between two of these 

 hills, at about four miles distance from the town of Dundrura, 

 was the bog of Kilmegan, in which the facts were observed. 

 It appears to have been a lake, which has been gradually filled 

 up by the growth and decay of successive races of aquatic 

 plants, and the consequent formation of peat; but on ac- 

 count of the water still remaining, it had never been worked as 

 a peat-bog until the present Marquis of Downshire drained it by 

 means of a level. The peat was found to rest upon a bed of 

 marl, from one to five feet in thickness, consisting of a cal- 

 careous base mingled with comminuted fragments of freshwater 

 shells, which it likewise contained in an entire and but 

 slightly altered state, all referable to three still existing species, 

 vix. Helix putris, L. Turbo fontinalis, and Tellina cornea. 

 Many bones and horns of the Elk had been found from time to 

 time in this bog, all of which, Mr. Weaver ascertained, from 

 the concurrent testimony of the tenantry, were found either 

 between the peat and the marl, or slightly impressed in the 

 latter. 



The researches of the Archdeacon of Limerick had been made in 

 a bog in that county: the bones were found under circum«i 

 stances precisely similar, and upon marl of the same kind. From 

 them the Archdeacon had been enabled, with the assistance of 

 Mr. Hart, MRCS. to frame a nearly complete and gigantic 

 skeleton, which he had given to the Museum of the lloyal 

 Dubhn Society. Some of the bones presented indications of, 

 disease ; one leg had evidently been broken and healed again^p 

 a rib had a perforation about one-eighth of an inch wide, the 

 edges of which were depressed on the outside, and raised on 

 the inside ; it was such as could only have been made by a 

 thin sharp instrument, which did not penetrate far enough to 

 cause a mortal wound ; for, as the edges of the perforation 

 were quite smooth, the animal must have survived the injury at 

 least a twelvemonth. The bones seemed to retain all their 

 principles, with the addition of a portion of carbonate of limQ, 

 imbibed from the contiguous marl. Some of them still retaine4»o 

 their marrow, which had the appearance of fresh suet, an4)( : 

 blazed when appHed to the flame of a candle. With theK]|.v 

 were found a pelvis, apparently belonging to a Red-Deer, ^ndiiij 

 the skull of a Dog, of about the size of a Water-Spaniel. Qait«.l 

 From all these circumstances, which accord withifl^osje^f^'l^^o 



