488 FOSSIL ELK OF IRELAND. 



cumstances under which the bones were found, with their 

 geological position, was laid before the Dublin Society, 

 in a letter from Archdean Maunsell to the Right Hon. 

 George Knox. 



" Middleton Lodge, March 8. 1825. 



" MY DEAR SIR, 



" I deferred replying to your letter of the 1st, as it 

 was my intention to proceed to Limerick in a few days, 

 and I was anxious to look over some notes I had taken, 

 and which I left there, of the circumstances connected 

 with the discovery of the fossil remains which the Royal 

 Dublin Society have received. As I have, however, 

 been obliged to postpone my departure for several days, 

 I can no longer defer offering my best thanks for the 

 kind manner in which you have received the conjectures 

 which I formed upon a subject to which my attention was 

 directed, by having fortunately been present before the 

 bones were disturbed from the situation in which they 

 had lain during a period which I apprehend it would 

 not be easy to define. I am sensible that any considera- 

 tion which may have been attached to my observations 

 should be attributed to the interest which the subject 

 itself is calculated to excite, rather than to any ability 

 of mine to do it justice. The opinion which I took the 

 liberty of communicating to you was formed after some 

 consideration, and although I had not the most remote 

 idea of its being worthy of any attention, I can have no 

 objection to your making any use of it which you may 

 conceive expedient. There is, I conceive, much inte- 

 resting material for speculation, resulting from the dis- 

 covery of these fossil remains, and the first that natu- 

 rally occurs is the manner in which the animals were de- 



