548 



Prceeedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



done by means of the apparatus employed for sinking tlie so-called 

 Abyssinian pumps. After a few trials in varions places along the 

 side of tbe old drain — now quite full of water — I obtained a com- 

 pressed section, which appeared to coiTespond with the strata said to 

 overlie the bones of Megaceros (Oldham, Journal Geol. Soc, Dublin, 

 Tol. iii., p. 252). Here, accordingly, a trench was commenced, seventy 

 feet long, and from nine to twelve feet broad (fig. 2, a). This trench 

 is represented in section at a, fig. 1. The direction in which this 



SCALE 1INCH=I2 YARDS 



Fij:2 



SCALE I INCH=220 YARDS 



R.J.MOSS.DEL: 



section is taken is indicated by the dotted line h,j, fig. 2. The first foot 

 of material removed consisted of peat ; under this there was a stratum of 

 sand of an average depth of about two feet. The sand lay upon a brown- 

 coloiu'ed clay, which extended for about two feet, and lay upon a bed 

 of rounded granitic bou.lders. The spaces between the lower parts of 

 the boulders were filled with a fine bluish-grey clay. Amongst the 

 boulders, and surrounded with the brown clay, we found nineteen. 

 skulls of Megaceros, with the attached antlers greatly broken ; also 

 many broken pieces of horn, and a number of bones. The heads and 

 horns were huddled together promiscuously, often so tightly locked 

 together that there was some difficiilty in removing them fi-om their 

 rocky bed. In many cases they were securely wedged between the 

 boulders, and generally so situated that they could only be extricated 

 by raising them directly upwards ; some part would have been broken 

 by any attempt to move them laterally. The smaller bones were found by 

 carefully examining between the boulders after the heads had been 

 removed. On several of the granite boulders I noticed a net-like 

 coating of vegetable matter, closely resembling matter contained in 

 the cavities of many of the skulls. This is so decomposed that I fear it 

 is impossible to determine its nature with any degree of certainty. I 

 was not satisfied with merely collecting the bones that lay amongst 



