CEKVUS ELAPHUS. 477 



Many large antlers of Red-deer were discovered by Mr. 

 Gladdish in the freshwater sandy deposits above the chalk 

 at Gravesend. 



Antlers and bones of the Red-deer are found associated 

 with remains of the Mammoth and Rhinoceros in the fresh- 

 water deposits at Brentford, Rugby, in the valley of the 

 Thames, and in that of the Severn. Morton has figured 

 such antlers in his ' Natural History of the County of North- 

 ampton ;' and a very fine fossil antler, wanting the sum- 

 mit, has been acquired by the British Museum, (No. 

 16,081,) from the collection of Miss Baker of Northampton. 



Dr. Buckland, in his account of the fossils from the 

 Hysena-cave at Kirk dale, says of the fragments of horns 

 of Deer, " One of these resembles the horn of the common 

 Stag or Red-deer, the circumference of the base measuring 

 nine inches and three quarters, which is about the size of 

 our largest stag. A second measures seven inches and 

 three quarters at the same part, and both have two antlers 

 that rise very near the base." " No horns are found en- 

 tire, but fragments only, and these apparently gnawed to 

 pieces, like the bones ; their lower extremity nearest the 

 head is that which has generally escaped destruction ; and 

 it is a curious fact, that this portion of all the horns I have 

 seen from the cave shows, by the rounded state of the base, 

 that they had fallen off by absorption or necrosis, and been 

 shed from the head on which they grew, and not broken 

 off by violence."* With respect to the horns so shed, 

 the author afterwards remarks, " It is probable that the 

 hyaenas found them thus shed, and dragged them home 

 for the purpose of gnawing them in their den ; and to 

 animals so fond of bones, the spongy interior of horns 

 of this kind would not be unacceptable. I found a frag- 



* ' Reliquiae Diluvianae,' p. 19. 



