28 Reviews — Jukes on Indented Bones. 
On some INDENTATIONS IN BONES OF A CeERYUS MEGACEROS FOUND IN 
JUNE 1863, UNDERNEATH A Bog NEAR LeGAN, County oF LoNG- 
FORD, Ireranp. By J. Beets Juxes, M.A., F.R.S. Dublin, 
1864. pp. 11; with 4 Plates. 
poe object of this memoir, read before the Geological Society of 
Dublin, December 9, 1863, is to describe certain distinct inden- 
tations, abrasions, and other markings, visible on some bones of 
Cervus megaceros (often called the Gigantic Irish Elk or Deer), 
found in shell-marl (2 or 3 feet thick), on gravelly clay, and under 
peat, once probably 40 feet thick. The skull, fragments of antlers, 
and upwards of 40 bones of the skeleton were secured. Of these, 
the left femur shows ‘a deep transverse gash across it,’ on the inner- 
side, above the knee-joint, and two small ‘circular holes, like nail- 
holes’ near by; the right tibia has a broad shallow transverse inden- 
tation, exactly fitted by an equally indented antler-tine; and there are 
three smal! shallow notches on the polished surface at one edge of the 
tibia. There are also some abrasions at both ends of the femur, and 
at the upper end of the tibia. All these markings (which appear to 
have been on the bones when found) are very clearly described, and 
illustrated by careful drawings. They were, of course, at once re- 
garded as artificial, and as evidence of man’s co-existence with the 
now extinct Cervus megaceros; but Mr. Jukes thinks that they may 
be accounted for otherwise. 
He observed that the indented antler-tine and tibia not only closely 
fit together, even to minute crevices being filled by little opposite 
ridges, but the surfaces of the two corresponding hollows are similarly 
stained with irony streaks; and he thinks that not only were these 
two bones not fitted together by human hands, but have been mutually 
indented by pressure one on the other under the heavy peat. He 
observes that, even if we suppose these bones were once roughly 
fitted and tied together (the notches on the edge of the tibia, in such 
case, corresponding to the marks of withes) the difficulty arises as to 
their having been imbedded with the rest of the skeleton, which 
seems to have found its resting place in the shell-marl just as the 
many drowned and drifted carcasses of Deer and other animals did 
in the old lakes. ; 
The notched and bored femur has especially the look of having 
been artificially cut, the sides of the notch seem to have been hacked 
‘by the sawing action of a knife;’ ‘the bottom of the cut termi- 
nates in an acute angle ;’ and the cells of the bone are not all crushed. 
A small piece of antler, however, was impacted in the gash; and Mr. 
Jukes thinks that this indentation might have been formed by pres- 
sure against a contiguous antler-point. The author offers, also, some 
observations on the analysis of the bones, on the usual conditions 
of such bones found in the bogs of Ireland, and on the frequent 
occurrence of indentations and abrasions on the bones of C, 
megaceros. 
If the bones in question were cut by man before they were im- 
bedded in the marl, it must have been when the valley was occupied 
