64 H. Woodward — Man and the Mammoth. 



is immense, even wlien compared with our largest living species ; when 

 erect, the topmost prong of his antlers was more than ten feet from the 

 ground, and in breadth across they measured more than nine feet. 

 The bones of the Irish deer occur in the beds of marl which under- 

 lie the peat-bogs, and they are generally very perfect, being stained 

 more or less deeply by tannin or iron, and sometimes partially in- 

 crusted by pale blue phosphate of iron. Even the marrow of the 

 bones oocasionally remains in the state of a fatty substance, which 

 will burn with a clear lambent flame. Groups of skeletons have 

 been found crowded together in a small space, in a peat moss, with 

 the skulls elevated and the antlers thrown back upon the shoulders, 

 as if a herd of deer had fled for shelter or been driven into a morass 

 and perished on the spot. Besides the numerous remains of this 

 deer found in Ireland, its bones and horns have been obtained from 

 Kent's Hole, the Forest-bed on the Norfolk coast, Kirkdale Cave, and 

 numerous other locahties. 



Of the Oxen, the most ancient is the Bos primigemus. Professor 

 Owen maintains the opinion that this gigantic ox (the Urns of Csesar, 

 which dwelt in the great Hercynian forest), was never tamed by the 

 Britons or Eomans, but was only an object of the chase. Its 

 remains are alike common to the caves, the river- valley deposits, and 

 the peat-bogs. 



A grand head, and entire horn-cores, with a large proportion of the 

 skeleton of Bos primigenius, was obtained from beneath the peat near 

 Cambridge. The peat had grown into and filled the cavities of the 

 skull and all the bones. On the removal of the peat from the frontal 

 bones, a stone celt was disclosed, broken off short in the forehead, 

 which it had pierced, and had been apparently left there as useless 

 by the hunter, to whose skill the mighty beast had fallen. The 

 specimen is now in the Woodwardian Museum, Cambridge. 



I was present at the disinterment of two magnificent pairs of 

 horn-cores at Ilford, in the Brick-earth of the Thames valley, only a 

 short time since. This species is readily distinguished from the 

 Bison by the large size, length, and curvature of the horn-cores and 

 by the form of the skull. Bos primigenius is found both in deposits 

 with human remains, and in those anterior to man's era. 



Of the Elephants, two forms, long confounded together, are now 

 known to have been contemporary with man in Europe, viz., 

 1. Elephas antiquus, Falc, and 2. Elephas primigenius, Blum. 



The former of these (E. antiquus) was long considered as identical 

 with E. primigenius, but Dr. Falconer has shown that by the 

 characters of the molar teeth they may be distinguished. 1st. By 

 the narrowness of the tooth in proportion to its length and height. 

 2nd. By the great height of the plates, being twice that of the 

 width of the crown. 3rd. Mesial rhomboidal expansion of disks 

 of wear. 4th. Great crimping of the enamel plates. 



The tusks of E. antiquus are nearly straight. The remains of 

 this species are almost as widely distributed in our bone-caverns 

 and Eiver- valley gravels and Brick-earths, as are those of E. 

 primigenius. No fewer than 2,000 elephants' grinders are re- 



