ANCIENT AND EXTINCT BRITISH QUADRUPEDS. 183 
crossing the lake, or when feeding along the margin, or on being 
driven there by wolves—it is clear that entire herds were 
destroyed at the same time. The above is only one of many 
such instances. Amongst the heads found at Killegar in 1847 
were two with interlocked antlers. Another and similar instance 
is recorded from a bog near Limerick,* so that it would seem that 
many deer lost their lives in mortal encounter along the sides of 
lakes. . 
The objection to this deer being called an Elk is the obvious 
dissimilarity in the form of the antler in the true Elk and so-called 
Irish Elk. The former had neither brow nor bez antlert; for a 
_long time they were confounded, although, when the difference is 
pointed out, a glance is sufficient to distinguish them. The weight 
of the heaviest skull and horns of the Elk seldom exceeds 55 tbs., 
and the extreme breadth across the latter is about 70 inches; 
whereas many dried specimens of its Irish congener weigh upwards 
of 90 tbs., and give a horizontal measurement of antlers of as much 
as 120 inches, The great ugly skull and short neck of the Elk, 
allowing the antlers to be easily thrown back on the withers, 
contrast with the small handsome head and long serpentine but 
powerful neck of the Great-horned Deer. The delicately formed 
limbs of the latter are unlike the large-boned extremities of the 
former; in fact, the entire aspect of the latter shows a rare 
combination of great strength and agility, not equalled in any 
living species of the family. Although no remains of this deer 
have been found in conjunction with those of other wild denizens 
of Ireland, excepting the Reindeer, the probability is that, like the 
latter, if was a contemporary of the Bear, Horse, and Mammoth. 
Its remains have turned up in about twelve different English 
caverns, and in various river deposits, associated in several 
instances with bones of the large Carnivora and other extinct 
quadrupeds, showing that it had a place in the qncient British 
fauna at an early period. Nowhere, however, does it seem to have 
been so plentiful as in Ireland. This has been accounted for, as 
before observed, by the paucity of carnivorous quadrupeds, and of 
* Oldham, Journal Geological Society of Ireland, vol. iii., p. 252. 
+ Several attempts at imposition have been practised in Ireland by importing 
horns of the Moose, and painting them red to give a semblance of antiquity. The 
head of the male Gigantic Deer isin great request among dealers, and in a recent 
instance as much as £25 was given for a skull and horns of by no means a large 
individual.—A. ZL. A. 
