114 FOSSIL MAMMALIAN REMAINS. 
The antler measured, when perfect, from tip to tip, two feet, 
and from the burr to the farthest point, about two feet ten 
inches, round the burr ten inches, and round the beam nearly 
eight inches. 
In the Proceedings of the Berwickshire Club, 1860, p. 208, 
Mr. Hardy figures a portion of the antler of a deer, which he 
believes to belong to the great Irish elk. We are inclined to 
think, from the drawing which accompanies his paper, that it 
belongs to the true elk. This fragment was found near Cold- 
ingham, at the depth of six feet, amidst a deposit of gravel, 
earth, and large boulders, similar in appearance to those collec- 
tions of waterworn stones and pebbles that underlie the common 
soil in many parts of Berwickshire. 
The occurrences before-mentioned probably belong to the pre- 
historic period, but the following quotation, if it may be relied 
on, would lead us to infer that the true elk has existed in this 
island at a much later date. In Maxwell’s Hillside and Border 
Sketches (vol. I. p. 317), it is said that a medal of Trojan, a 
patera, a fibula, and a moose deer were discovered near North 
Berwick. 
There is no historical account of the former existence of the 
Elk, as a native of Britain, by any Roman author; but it is, on 
the contrary, mentioned particularly by Camsar as living in the 
great Hercynian forest during the Roman period. With the 
progress of civilization, it has gradually disappeared from the 
countries formerly covered by this extensive forest, and occurs 
now in Europe, only in Northern Prussia, Lithuania, Finland, 
Russia, and Scandinavia. It ranges also through Northern 
Asia; and, under the name of Moose-deer, through the wooded 
districts of British America and the secluded districts of the 
States. ; 
5. Great Irish Exx, Megaceros Hibernicus, Owen. (Pl. IV.) 
In the winter of 1855-6 the remains of an imperfect skeleton of 
the great Irish Elk were discovered in a brickyard at South Shields. 
The workmen in digging clay at rather a lower level than usual, 
came unexpectedly upon an intercalated bed of peat, which proved 
to be, on further examination, a foot in thickness, and of very 
