346 THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FOREST 



Reindeer, in limiting its range, and finally in driving it to 

 extermination. 



THE ELK 



If there be some doubt as to the exact status of the Scottish 

 Reindeer, there is none regarding the ^L\\^(Alces alces] (Fig. 2, 

 p. 15), a huge, ungainly member of the northern forest 

 fauna. This giant amongst Deer, standing sometimes about 

 six feet high at the shoulder, with antlers spanning six feet 

 from tip to tip, is now confined to regions ranging from 

 Scandinavia to eastern Siberia in the Old World, while a 

 closely related form, the Moose, occurs in the New World 

 from the New England States to British Columbia. But in 

 the old days the Elk dwelt far south in Europe and ranged 

 over the whole of the British Isles. In the latter, the trend of 

 the limitation of its range has been from south northwards, as 

 is shown in a rough way by the distribution of the remains 

 which have been recovered. The Scottish records are far 

 more numerous than the English, an indication of a longer 

 period of occupation or of larger herds in the northern 

 territories. 



In Scotland the range of the Elk in time and in space 

 was a wide one. In the period of the great marl formations, 

 the first definite lake-deposits which accumulated after the 

 main phase of the Ice Age had passed away, the Elk ranged 

 from the Lowlands to Perthshire. An antler, probably 

 belonging to this species, though described as that of the 

 "Gigantic Irish Elk," was found in 1859 in a river gravel 

 at Coldingham in Berwickshire. Marl beds, in most cases 

 underlying considerable deposits of peat, have yielded re- 

 mains of the Elk in Selkirkshire; at Kirkurd in Peeblesshire; 

 in Midlothian at Craigcrook near Cramond, and in Dudding- 

 ston Loch, where they were associated with many articles 

 of bronze ; in Forfarshire at one if not two localities ; and 

 in Perthshire in the parishes of Airley wight (Fig. 60), 

 Kinloch and Muthil. 



During the period of the formation of the peat, on the 

 whole at a date later than the deposition of the great marl 

 beds, the Elk seems to have extended its range to the 

 northern limits of the mainland, though it still retained its 



