FOSSIL ELK OF IRELAND. 503 



arrangement. It would rather appear, then, that they 

 were given the animal as weapons for its protection, a 

 purpose for which they seem to have been admirably de- 

 signed ; for their lateral expansion is such, that should 

 occasion require the animal to use them in his defence, 

 their extreme tips would easily reach beyond the re- 

 motest parts of his body ; and if we consider the power- 

 ful muscles for moving the head, whose attachments oc- 

 cupied the extensive surfaces of the cervical vertebrae, 

 with the length of the lever afforded by the horns them- 

 selves, we can easily conceive how he could wield them 

 with a force and velocity which would deal destruction 

 to any enemy having the hardihood to venture within 

 their range. 



From the formidable appearance of these horns, then, 

 we must suppose that their possessor was obnoxious to 

 the aggressions of some carnivorous animals of fero- 

 cious habits ; and such we know to have abounded in 

 Ireland, as the wolf, and the celebrated Irish wolf 

 dog. Nor would it be surprising if limestone caves 

 should be discovered in this country, containing the 

 remains of beasts of prey and their victims, similar to 

 the hyaenas' dens of Kirkdale, and other places, respect- 

 ing which such interesting researches have been lately 

 laid before the public by the geologists of this country and 

 the Continent. 



The absence of all record, or even tradition, respect- 

 ing this animal*, naturally leads one to inquire whe- 



* It is evidently not the animal mentioned by Julius Caesar, un- 

 der the name of Alces ; vide Comment, de Bello Gallico, vi. cap. x. ; 

 nor is it the Alces of Pliny. 



