314 APPENDIX. 



blades, and many other parts. The bones of a horfe 

 fixteen hands high, which Jie befide them, are well cal- 

 culated to imprefs the beholder with aftonifliment at 

 the comparative inferiority of the latter. The palmated 



brow antlers of thefe foflil horns, I am informed, dif- 







tinguifh them from the horns of every kind of deer 

 now known, except from the rein-deer of the North of 

 Europe. 



The fir-trees, that are fo often found under the 

 turf-bogs, form another curious article in the an- 

 cient department (if I may ufe the expreifion) of the 

 natural hiftory of this kingdom, as there is not any 

 fpecies of that tree now indigenous ; from the texture 

 of the bark, which is coarfe and rough, the kind feems 

 to have been the Scotch fir, the boletus ignarius. Aga- 

 ric, or touch-wood, is found in many bogs in this 

 county, and in confiderable quantities, but growing I 

 have never met with it ; pieces of the bark of the trees, 

 on which they have grown, are fometimes found ad- 

 hering to them, by which it can be afcertaine^j that oak 

 and birch afforded their fupport. 



The pearls found in the rivers Lagan, and in the 

 Bann, muft not efcape our obfervation ; they are ob- 

 tained from mufcles bred in thefe rivers, in fhape and 

 colour like fea mufcles, but of a larger fize. The fifh 

 of this mufcle cuts' like an pyfter, is of a dark green 

 colour, and foon corrupts -, being infipid, it is feldom 

 eaten The (hells are fattened by two cartilages near 

 the ends, differing in this particular from the oyfter, 



&c. 



