MEGACEROS HIBERNICUS. 465 



the lacustrine shell-marl beneath the peat or bog earth. 

 The most instructive and precise account of the situ- 

 ation in which the remains of the Megaceros have been 

 found in Ireland, is contained in the ' Philosophical Trans- 

 actions,' vol. xxxiv. p. 122, in a letter from Mr. James 

 Kelly, dated Downpatrick, Dec. 22nd, 1725. He says, 

 " For the first three feet we met with a fuzzy kind of earth, 

 that we call moss, proper to make turf for fuel ; then we 

 find a stratum of gravel about half a foot ; under which, 

 for about three feet more, we find a more kindly moss, 

 that would make a more excellent fuel ; this is all together 

 mixed with timber, but so rotten that the spade cuts it as 

 easily as it does the earth. Under this, for the depth of 

 three inches, we find leaves, for the most part oaken, that 

 appear fair to the eye, but will not bear a touch. This 

 stratum we find sometimes interrupted with heaps of seed, 

 which seem to be broom or furze seed ; in other places in 

 the same stratum we find sea- weed, and other things as 

 odd to be at that depth. Under this appears a stratum of 

 blue clay, half a foot thick, fully mixed with shells; 

 then appears the right marl, commonly two, three, or four 

 feet deep, and in some places much deeper, which looks 

 like buried lime, or the lime that tanners throw out of 

 their lime-pits, only that it is fully mixed with shells, 

 such as the Scots call ' fresh- water wilks.' Among this 

 marl, and often at the bottom of it, we find very great 

 horns, which we, for want of another name, call ' Elk- 

 horns.' We have also found shanks and other bones of 

 these beasts in the same place." 



The head and antlers, described and figured by Molyneux 

 in the ' Philosophical Transactions' for 1697, lay about five 

 feet under ground : " the first pitch was of earth, the next 



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