OP CREATION. 32 1 



Megaceros are now articulated, and may be seen in 

 various public museums ; and, although these more 

 perfect remains have been obtained from Ireland and 

 the Isle of Man, where the conditions were highly 

 favourable for their preservation, there is not wanting 

 distinct evidence to prove that the animal was also 

 formerly an inhabitant of England. The expanse of 

 the horns, in some specimens, is said to be as much 

 as sixteen feet ; they are branched and palmate, and 

 were unquestionably shed and reproduced annually, like 

 the horns of others of the deer tribe. The specimen 

 in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in 

 London is ten feet six inches high to the summit of 

 the antlers, and six feet to the top of the longest dorsal 

 spine. In this instance the span of the horns is but 

 eight feet, and the weight of the skull and antlers 

 seventy-six pounds; but in other cases, as in the Dublin 

 specimen, the span of the horns as well as the weight 

 is much greater. It is interesting to consider the 

 extent of vital energy which could thus throw out, 

 in the course of three or four months, between sixty 

 and seventy pounds weight of osseous matter. 



There is reason to suppose that this animal re- 

 mained an inhabitant of the earth up to a compa- 

 ratively late period, though it had probably died out 

 before the introduction of the human race. It must 

 have existed at a time when there was abundance 

 of open forest and an ample supply of vegetable food, 

 and its remains occur chiefly in the marl, but are found 

 also in gravel. There can be little doubt that it, and 

 several of its contemporaries, were destroyed during 

 or in consequence of the great geological changes 

 that have taken place recently in our island, the ge- 



p 5 



