132 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
THE Deer tribe was represented in our islands from the glacial 
period up to recent times by the gigantic animal known as the 
Trish Elk, which, with the Moose or Elk, and Reindeer, dis- 
appeared from this country before the historical epoch, whilst their 
contemporaries, the Red Deer and Roe, have, through careful 
protection, survived them. 
THe GREAT-HORNED, or GIGANTIC DEER, was unquestionably 
one of the most magnificent quadrupeds that ever trod the face of 
our planet. A full-grown stag, standing erect, measured from ten 
feet to twelve feet from the ground to the summit of the antlers, the 
spread of which covered over ten feet; with such a span, it has 
often been a matter of wonder how the animal could proceed 
through the forest, unless, as the Red Deer often does, it con- 
stantly dipped the antlers, which in case of pursuit would greatly 
impede its progress, Hence the supposition is that it fed more in 
the open, along the bare hill-sides and by the margins of lakes. 
The first entire skeleton was discovered in the Isle of Man about 
1825; subsequently larger and more perfect skeletons were found 
in Ireland, and, almost without exception, in the shell marl and 
clay underlying the bogs. We believe we are correct in stating 
that no remains of the Great-horned Deer have yet been found in 
the peat, which shows that the animal must have died out before 
the moss and other water plants commenced to form on the lakes. 
Notwithstanding the discovery of several thousand heads and 
bones of this Deer, they afford no indication that man was con- | 
temporary with it, and old Irish literature has been ransacked in 
vain for evidence on this point. 
It was, however, contemporary with the Reindeer in England 
and Ireland, where remains of the two have been found associated, 
whether through chance or choice; and there is no doubt that the 
animal was at one time extremely common in the sister isle—so 
plentiful, indeed, that there are few peat bogs which have not 
produced exuvie. 
During the summer of 1875 no less than thirty skeletons huddled 
together were exhumed from underlying clay in the bog of Killegar, 
among the Dublin mountains, whilst in the same situation (both 
instances occurring in an area of not a hundred yards by twenty) 
in 1847 as many as thirty more heads of this Stag were found. 
However the deer perished—whether by getting mired when 
