FOSSIL ELK OF IRELAND. 489 



stroyed, and the bones so singularly preserved. I stat- 

 ed, in the hasty sketch which I gave you of my theory 

 upon this point, that I apprehended they must have 

 been destroyed by some overwhelming deluge, that they 

 were probably drowned upon the hills where they had 

 taken refuge, as the waters rose, and that, as they sub- 

 sided, they were drawn from thence into the valley in 

 which they were found ; that the agitation of the waters 

 had occasioned such a dispersion of the bones, when 

 the ligaments dissolved, as would account for their ha- 

 ving been scattered in the way in which they were 

 found, and that the deposite of shell marl, with which I 

 supposed the water to have been turbid, had so com- 

 pletely protected them from atmospheric influence as to 

 prevent their subsequent decomposition. To enable 

 you to form some estimate of the reasonableness of this 

 supposition, it is necessary that I should endeavour to 

 explain the situation, &c. of the valley and the adjoining 

 hills. The valley in which the remains were found con- 

 tains about twenty plantation acres, and the soil con- 

 sists of a stratum of peat about a foot thick, immediately 

 under this a stratum of shell-marl, varying from 1 to 

 %^ feet in thickness ; in this many of the shells retain 

 their original colour and figure, and are not marine ; 

 under the marl there is a bed of light blue clay ; through 

 this one of my workmen drove an iron rod, in several 

 places, twelve feet deep, without meeting opposition. 

 Most of the bones and heads, eight in number, were 

 found in the marl ; many of them, however, appeared 

 to rest on the clay, and to be merely covered by the 

 marl. The remains were disposed in such a manner 

 as to prevent the possibility of ascertaining the exact 

 component parts of each skeleton ; in some places por- 



