FOSSIL ELK OF IRELAND. 493 



liques of the former grandeur of the animal kingdom, 

 and carries back the imagination to a period when whole 

 herds of this noble animal wandered at large over the 

 face of the country. 



To proceed with a description of the several parts 

 of this specimen in detail, I shall commence with the 

 horns, which give the animal its chief characteristic fea- 

 ture. 



The horns. That the description of these may be the 

 more intelligible, I will first explain the terms which I 

 mean to apply to their several parts. Each horn con- 

 sists of the socket or root, the burr or coronary circle, 

 the beam or shaft, the palm and the antlers. 



The socket or root is the part of the horn which 

 grows out of the frontal bone, and which is never shed ; 

 it is smooth, of a brown colour, an inch and half in 

 length, and eleven inches three quarters in circumfe- 

 rence ; in the animal's lifetime it was covered by the 

 skin. The coronary or bead-like circle, or burr, is a 

 ring of small, hard, whitish prominences, resembling a 

 string of pearls, which encircles the junction of the sock- 

 et with the part of the horn which falls annually from 

 the heads of all deer. 



The beam or shaft extends outwards, with a curva- 

 ture whose concavity looks downwards, and backwards. 

 This part is nearly cylindrical at its root, and its length 

 equals about one-fourth of that of the whole horn ; its 

 outer end is spread out and flattened on its upper sur- 

 face, and is continuous with the 



Palm, which expands outwards in a fan-like form, the 

 outer extremity of which measures two feet ten inches 

 across, being its broadest part. Where the beam joins 



