VOL. XXIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. IQQ 



jin Jccount of some large Teeth lately dug up in the North of Ireland. By 

 Mr. Francis Nevile. N° 346, p. 367. 



You here have the draught of two teeth lately found within 8 miles of 

 Bulturbet, at a place called Maghery, in part of the Bishop of Killmore's lands, 

 on digging the foundation for a mill near the side of a small brook, that parts 

 the counties of Cavan and Monoghan. 



There are in all 4 teeth, two of a larger and two of a smaller sort ; the 

 larger one is the farthest tooth in the under jaw; the other is like it, and be- 

 longs to the opposite side ; the lesser tooth I take to be the 3d or 4th tooth from 

 it, and has its fellow : these are all that were found, and one of them in a piece 

 of the jawbone, which mouldered away as soon as taken out of the earth ; there 

 was part of the scull found also of a very large size and thickness, but as soon 

 as exposed to the air, it mouldered away as the jaw had done. 



Some few pieces of other bones were found, but none entire ; yet by those 

 bits that were found, one might guess that they were parts of those that 

 were of a larger size. 



The place where this monster lay was thus prepared, which makes me believe 

 it had been buried, or that it had lain there since the deluge. It was about 4 

 feet under ground, with a little rising above the superficies of the earth, which 

 was a plain under the foot of a hill, and about 30 yards from the brook. The 

 bed on which it lay had been laid with fern, with that sort of rushes here called 

 sprits, and with bushes intermixed, and nut shells. Under this was a stiff blue 

 clay, on which the teeth and bones were found : above this was first a mixture 

 of yellow clay and sand, much of the same colour ; under that a fine white 

 sandy clay, which was next to the bed: the bed was for the most part a foot 

 thick, and in some places thicker, with a moisture clear through it; it lay close, 

 and cut much like turf, and would divide into flakes, thicker or thinner at 

 pleasure ; and in every layer the seed of the rushes was as fresh as if new pulled ; 

 so that it was in height of seed-time that those bones were laid there. The 

 branches of the fern, in every lay as we opened them, were very distinguish- 

 able, as were the seeds of the rushes and the tops of boughs. The whole matter 

 smelt very sour, as it was dug, and tracing it I found it 34 feet long, and about 

 20 or 22 feet broad. 



It will be worth considering what sort of a creature this might be, whether 

 human or a brute; if human, there was some reason for the interment, and for 

 that preparation of the bed it was laid on ; if a brute, it was not worth the 

 trouble: if human, it must be larger than any giant we read of; if brutal, it 



