THE FOSSIL IRISH ELK. 1 19 



Mr. Glennon, the well-known naturalist of Dublin, 

 had a pair of horns 9 feet 6 inches across, by 1 6 feet 

 6 inches measured along the curve. The height of the 

 skeleton from the hoof to the top of the dorsal ver- 

 tebrae was 7 feet 6 ins., and when standing with the 

 head up, it would require 18 feet head room. * Again 

 the late Lord Enniskillen had a head and horns in his 

 museum at Florence Court, which we think must have 

 been even larger than this. The moose, as we know 

 is an inhabitant of dense forest, and is to a great extent a 

 tree-feeder ; the remains of enormous trees found in the 

 bogs also show beyond a doubt, that in remote times 

 Ireland was a forest country, covered with magnificent 

 timber, beneath whose shade this great elk found a 

 congenial home. 



The great natural forest which once covered Western 

 Europe has however of course long since been swept 

 away; nevertheless, in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and 

 Russia, remains of it still exist which give a very good 

 idea of what it used to be in bygone times. Most of the 

 finest specimens of timber, however, have been cut for 

 commercial and other purposes ; still even so, the forest 

 still existing in the interior of any of these countries 

 is well worth seeing. 



The scenery throughout the Norwegian forests in 

 the first place is often magnificent, and vistas of distant 

 hills and valleys, seen from the crest of a ridge, often 

 present pictures of natural beauty enchanting to every 

 true lover of nature. As a rule the trees are not very 

 large, and consist mostly of dark spruce firs, growing 

 thickly together, almost like a field of corn. The con- 

 sequence is, of course, that all the lower branches have 



* Echoes from the Backwoods, by Levinge. 



