182 
consideration, and classed them under the head of Unmanufactured 
Animal Remains. As no other collection of this nature is known to exist 
in Ireland, and as it includes upwards of one hundred and eighty speci- 
mens, I take this opportunity of offering some observations upon the an- 
cient Fauna of Ireland, as connected with the early history of the country. 
As yet we possess but imperfect knowledge upon the subject. (See 
the Journal of the Geological Society, vol. i., p. 224.) The remains of 
extinct animals are much fewer than in England; but then it must 
be remembered that our investigations have hitherto been very limited ; 
even now the great bone cave, just discovered at Dungarvan, containing 
those invaluable remains lately described at a meeting of the Royal 
Dublin Society by Dr. Carte, shows what may be expected when 
accident or intended exploration shall have made a stricter investigation 
beneath the surface of our island.* 
. Many references to our ancient animals can be found scattered 
throughout the annals, bardic histories, and tribute lists in early 
times ;,but among the many legends, both mythical and founded on fact, 
relating to the animals proper to this country, and preserved in the vast 
collection of Irish MSS. belonging to the Academy and the Library of 
the University, there is none so curious as the following extract from a 
poem preserved in one of the manuscripts purchased by the Academy 
from Messrs. Hodges and Smith (8. 149, 2/36, p. 486) and for which 
every lover of Irish history is deeply indebted to Mr. Eugene Curry: This 
curious zoological and topographical poem, the original of which he 
believes to be as old as the ninth century, is certainly one of the 
most remarkable productions of its kind known in any language in 
Europe of the same date. The history of the poem is as follows:— 
Finn Mac Cumhaill was made prisoner by Cormac Mac Art, monarch of 
Erinn, who, however, consents to liberate him when a ransom of two of 
every wild animal in Ireland, a male and female, were brought before 
him on the green of Tara. Cailte Mac Ronain, the foster-brother and fa- 
vourite of the celebrated Irish general (see ‘‘ Annals of the Four Masters,” 
under A.D. 286), having first performed many remarkable feats at 
Tara, in the King’s palace, undertook, and succeeded in accomplishing 
his apparently hopeless task within a twelvemonth ; and, in this poem, 
is said to have related to St. Patrick the result of his mission. There is, 
perhaps, no other example in the Irish language of the same extent, con- 
taining so many words—names of animals—of which the meaning is 
not known; and there are but few poems of so many lines requiring the 
same amount of topographical annotation. In this latter department I 
have been much assisted by Dr. O’Donovan. The names of several ani- 
mals are, as stated, untranslatable; either the animals themselves have 
become extinct in this country, or they are now known by other names 
than those preserved in the MS. Many years ago, Mr. Curry kindly 
* See the Journal of the Royal Dublin Society, No. XV., for October, 1859, pp. 44 
and 351, 
