

GREA T IRISH DEERSTELLERS SEA- CO W. 243 



wider, and heavier. In some cases the antlers have measured 

 more than 1 1 ft. from tip to tip. The body of the animal, as 

 well as its antlers, were larger and stronger than in any existing 

 deer. The limbs are stouter, as might be expected from the 

 great weight of the head and neck. Another and more striking 

 feature is the great size of the vertebrae of the neck; this was 

 necessary in order to form a column capable of supporting the 

 head and its massive antlers. (See Plate XXV.) 



The first tolerably perfect skeleton was found in the Isle of 

 Man, and presented by the Duke of Athol to the Edinburgh 

 Museum. It was figured in Cuvier's Ossemens Fossiles. Besides 

 those already mentioned at South Kensington and Dublin, there 

 is one in the Woodwardian Museum at Cambridge. 



It cannot be doubted that, like all existing deer, the animal 

 shed its antlers periodically, and such shed antlers have been 

 found. When it is recollected that all the osseous matter of 

 which they are composed must have been drawn from the blood 

 carried along certain arteries to the head, in the course of a few \J 

 months, our wonder may well be excited at the vigorous circula- 

 tion that took place in these parts. 



In the Red Deer the antlers, weighing about 24 Ibs., are 

 developed in the course of about ten weeks ; but what is that 

 compared to the growth of over 80 Ibs. weight in some three or 

 four months ? 



It is a mistake to suppose that the remains discovered in 

 Ireland were found in peat ; they occur not in the peat, but in 

 shell- marls and in clays under the peat. This is an important 

 point. " For if the remains were found in the peat, they 

 would prove that the Great Deer survived into a later period; 

 instead of being (as is believed from geological evidence) con- 

 temporary with the Mammoth and Woolly Rhinoceros in this 

 country, and then disappearing from view. As already stated, 

 it existed on the Continent, and may there have been exter^ 

 minated by man. 



