224 AN ANCIENT HAUNT OF THE CERVUS MEGACEROS, ETC. 



Thus far about eighty individuals of the great fossil elk, and one 

 reindeer, are represented in the remains recovered from the Bally betah 

 Bog, without any traces of the co-existence of man having been 

 observed. But no better locality could be chosen to test the question . 

 Lying though this interesting locality does, in such near vicinity to 

 the Irish metropolis, it has been left nearly untouched by the hand 

 of man within the whole historic period, during which cathedral 

 and castle, college, mart, and wharf, have crowded the banks of the 

 Liffy. The traces of the primitive architecture of remoter eras have 

 thereby escaped defacement. The general contour of the district 

 remains little changed. The aspect is wild and savage ; and it requires 

 no very great exercise of the fancy to restore the ancient mere, 

 reclothe its shores with foi*ests, the buried trunks of which abound 

 in the underlying peat, and reanimate them with the magnificent 

 hei'ds of the great fossil deer. Here are still the unefaced memorials 

 of primitive ai't. On the rising ground on the south-east margin of 

 the bog stands a large chambered cairn, which has been rifled ; and 

 the exposed chamber shows the megalithic structure characteristic of 

 the most ancient works of this class. There is also a circle near it 

 formed by an enclosure of stones and earth, which is regarded by the 

 natives with superstitious awe. According to the belief of the 

 peasants, if their cattle stray into this enclosure they will die. 



Here, then, it is probable that the bed of the neighbouring tarn or 

 bog must contain some evidences of the primitive arts of the Cairn- 

 builders, with means for determining the relative date of their 

 presence. there, as compared with the true age of the Gervus mega- 

 ceros. A report of the successful operations which rewarded the brief 

 labours of the excursion party was made to the executive council of 

 the British Association, and steps were taken with a view to a 

 systematic and thorough exploration of this favourite haunt of the 

 great fossil Irish elk, one of the most remaikable among the fauna 

 of Europe's Palseolithic period. 



