R. H. Scott — Irish Fossil Mammalia. 417 



the Megaceros at the Eoyal Dublin Society's Museum, printed in Dr. 

 Carte's pamphlet, he mentions the discovery of a head of a large 

 dog, at least of a carnivorous animal, which was found with the Deer 

 at Eath-cannon, county of Limerick. It has been supposed by some 

 to have been a Bear ; but Archdeacon Maunsell would hardly have 

 called it a Dog, if it did not closely resemble a Dog's skull. 



Canis lupus. — The remains of Wolves and Dogs can hardly be 

 distinguished one from the other. There are several skulls of a 

 canine type which have been found in Ireland ; some of them are 

 said to be those of Wolves. Several of those specimens were obtained 

 from Dunshaughlin. 



The date of the extinction of Wolves is well known. In 1641, 

 they were extremely troublesome. In 1652, a council order of 

 Cromwell's government was made at Kilkenny, which prohibited 

 the export of Wolf-dogs ; and the reward for a bitch Wolf was £6 ; 

 for a dog, £5. Smith, in his "History of Kerry," says the last was 

 killed there in 1710. Mr. Hardiman, the editor of OTlahertie's 

 "Description of lar-Connaught," pp. 10 and 180, gives some infor- 

 mation on the subject, and says that the date of the death of the last 

 Wolf in that district was 1700, as far as he could ascertain. 



Elephas primigenius. — In the year 1715,^ four teeth of an Elephant 

 were found by Mr. Francis Nevil, at Maghery, eight miles from Bel- 

 tarbet, in sinking for the foundation of a mill. The finder did not 

 know to what animal the teeth belonged, but suspected them to be 

 Elephants' teeth ; and this opinion was placed beyond a doubt by 

 Dr. Thomas Molyneux, in an interesting letter, which follows the 

 original communication. 



In the year 1859,^ Mr. E. Brenan, of Dungarvan, discovered a 

 considerable portion of the skeleton of an Elephant in the cave at 

 Shandon, near that town. The bones were associated with those of 

 Bears and numerous other mammals. 



In addition to these remains, Smith, in his " History of Waterford," 

 p. 58, mentions the discovery of the rib of an Elephant within a mile 

 of Whitechurch, not far from Dungarvan. He gives a figure of the 

 rib, on a reduced scale, and it appears to resemble the rib of a Whale. 

 It is quoted by Professor Oldham, in a paper read before the Geolo- 

 gical Society of Dublin, on the 12th of June, 1844,^ as the rib of a 

 Whale, without any reason being assigned for its being so called. 



Hippopotamus. — When the Ordnance Survey was in progress in the 

 county of Antrim, in the vicinity of Carrickfergus a tusk of a Hippo- 

 potamus was found by a son of Mr. P. Doran, as will be seen from 

 the accompanying letter, which I have received from my friend, Dr. 

 David Moore, the Curator of the Glasnevin Botanical Gardens : — 



" Glasaevin, February 5, 1864, 



" Mt Dear Sib,, — I have a clear recollection of the circumstance you mentioa 

 about the tooth being found near Carrickfergus. Mr. Jukes applied to me some time 

 ago to furnish him with all the information I could on the subject, which I did. The 



1 Boate, "Natural History of Ireland," p. 128. See also Phil. Trans, vol. xxix. 



* " Journal of the Eoyal Dublin Society," vol. ii., p. 251. 



3 " Journal of the Geological Society of Dublin," vol. iii., p. 70. 



