416 Reports and Proceedings — 



tinent of Europe — the Megaceros — which has rightly received the 

 appellation of Hiberniciis. 



I hope that we may have an opportunity, under the guidance of 

 Mr. Eichard Moss, of seeing some of the remains of this " antlered 

 monarch of the waste " in the position in which they were originally 

 interred, and it will be an interesting question for consideration 

 whether these remains can be regarded as of the same geological age 

 as those of the English caves and river-gravels, or whether they do 

 not for the most part belong to what Professor Boyd Dawkins has 

 termed the Pre-historic period. It seems by no means improbable 

 that this gigantic stag survived in this country for ages after he had 

 become extinct in other lands, and that the view held by Professor 

 Hull of his extinction being due to persecution by man is correct. If 

 this be so, it would seem to follow that the human occupation of 

 Ireland is of far more recent date than that of the sister country. 



And this brings me to one of those questions which have of late 

 been occupying the attention of geologists. I mean the date which 

 is to be assigned to the implement-bearing beds of Palaeolithic age in 

 England. Dr. James Geikie has held that for the most part they 

 belong to an interglacial episode towards the close of the Glacial 

 period, and regards it as certain that no Paleolithic bed can be 

 shown to belong to a more recent date than the mild era that preceded 

 the last great submergence. 



His follower, Mr. Skertchly, records the finding of Palaeolithic 

 implements in no less than three interglacial beds, each underlying 

 Boulder-clays of different ages and somewhat different characters, the 

 Hessle, the purple, and the chalky Boulder-clay. This raises two 

 main questions, first, as to how far Dr. Croll's theory of the great 

 alternations of climate during the Glacial period can be safely main- 

 tained ; and secondly, how far the observations as to the discovery 

 of implements in the so-called Brandon beds underlying the chalky 

 Boulder-clay can be substantiated. Another question is how far the 

 Palaeolithic deposits can be divided into those of modern and ancient 

 valleys, separated from each other by the purple Boulder-clay, and 

 the later of the two older than the Hessle beds. It would be out of 

 place here to discuss these questions at length. I will only observe, 

 that in a considerable number of cases the gravels containing the 

 implements can be distinctly shown to be of much later date than 

 the chalky Boulder-clay , and that if the implements occur in successive 

 beds in the same district, each separated from the other by an enor- 

 mous lapse of time, during which the whole country was buried 

 beneath incredibly large masses of invading ice, and the whole 

 mammalian fauna was driven away, it is a very remarkable circum- 

 stance. It is not the less remai'kable because this succession of 

 different Palaeolithic ages seems to be observable in one small district 

 only, and there is as close a resemblance between the instruments of 

 the presumedly different ages as there is between those of admittedly 

 the same date. I have always maintained the probability of evidence 

 being found of the existence of Man at an earlier period than that of 

 the post- Glacial or Quaternary river-gravels, but, as in all other cases, . 



