490 FOSSIL ELK OF IRELAND. 



tions were found removed many yards from others, and 

 in no instance were two bones found lying close to each 

 other. Their position also was singular ; in one place 

 two heads were found, with the antlers entwined in each 

 other, and immediately under them a large blade-bone ; 

 in another, a very large head was discovered, and al- 

 though a most diligent search was made, no part of the 

 skeleton found ; within some hundred yards, in ano- 

 ther, the jaw-bones were found, and not the head. The 

 conclusion which, I conceive, may fairly be deduced 

 from such a position of the various parts of the animals 

 is, that there must have been some powerful agent em- 

 ployed in dispersing them after their death ; and as I 

 consider it impossible that their own gravity could have 

 been sufficient to sink them through the various strata, 

 I conceive these must have originated subsequently to 

 the dispersion of the bones. I also think, that, if they 

 had been exposed for any time to atmospheric influence, 

 they never could have been preserved in their present 

 extraordinary perfection. 



" The hills immediately adjoining this valley are 

 composed of limestone, with a covering of rich mould 

 of various degrees of thickness. One of them, whose 

 base is about thirty acres, rises directly from the edge 

 of the valley, with sides very precipitous, and in one 

 place perfectly perpendicular, of naked limestone. In 

 every part of this hill the superficies comprises as much 

 stone as mould ; on the side nearly opposite, the hill is 

 equally high, but the sides not so steep, and the cover- 

 ing of mould thicker ; on the other sides the ground on- 

 ly rises in some degree (twenty or thirty feet perhaps), 

 and consists of a thin mould, and immediately under a 

 very hard limestone gravel. Indeed, except where 



