548 Alexander Goodman More Scientific Papers. 



as well as in other parts of Ireland, and it is said that upwards of 

 seventy heads of this gigantic deer were discovered near Lough Gur, 

 county Limerick. Its broken marrow-bones, as well as portions of its 

 antlers, were discovered, in 1879, in a cave near Cappagh, county 

 Waterford, associated with charcoal, hammer-stones, and human 

 bones. In this same cave, but in a deeper deposit, were found 

 remains of the grizzly bear and reindeer. Both these species, as well 

 as the mammoth, or woolly elephant, also of the horse, were repre- 

 sented among the fossil remains found in Shandon Cave, near Dun- 

 garvan. The last authentic account of the death of a wild wolf in 

 Ireland was in 1782, and fifty years later the breed of the famous Irish 

 wolf-hound became extinct. The wild boar abounded in Ireland, and 

 found ample food in the extensive oak forests which existed here. The 

 word tore or turk, the ancient Irish name of the boar, is of frequent 

 occurrence in the names of places. 



II. FRESHWATER FISHES. 



As in Mammals and Reptiles, Ireland is very poor in freshwater 

 fishes. The whole Irish list includes only twenty-three undisputed 

 species. Of these eighteen inhabit South-west Ireland. Several trout, 

 both sea-trout and brown trout, have been separated from each other, 

 and from the "parent" species, if we may so call them. But the 

 distinctions are, in most cases, so delicate and difficult to seize, that 

 only a trained specialist, and that a man of life-long experience, could 

 be trusted to correctly identify and name the many very ambiguous 

 forms, to which Dr. Gunther and other refined ichthyologists have 

 given Latin names, and have treated as separate species. This is no 

 question of Darwinism ; for if the existing forms were derived from a 

 smaller number of ancestors, still we must, for the sake of making our 

 identifications certain, treat as species, or as sub-species, or as distinct 

 varieties, all the different sorts of trout that our eye can distinguish, so 

 long as their distinctions from each other remain sufficiently clear and 

 permanent. 



Here lies the immense difficulty of studying, to any satisfactory end, 

 the innumerable varieties and forms, which are well known indeed to 

 the local fishermen^ who, also themselves, if removed to a new and 

 different locality, would find their former knowledge all at sea. Even 

 with Dr. Gunther' s excellent Catalogue in hand, we have found it 

 almost impossible to arrange with any certainty, under their several 

 names the many forms of trout which we have taken, so variable are 

 they even in the same lake, even in the same river and its tributaries. 

 No doubt the nature of their food, the colour and nature of the bottom, 

 the amount of light, the depth of water, should all be taken into con- 

 sideration. But when we find, in the case of the British Charrs, that 



