740 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



and even, if we suppose the mud of the lake to have been sufficientlj- 

 fluid to permit the bones to sink through it, so as to rest on the 

 bottom, they would touch it only at three or four points : the 

 great mass of the antlers would stand up off the bottom ; the sediment 

 would form under and around them, and they would be found imbedded 

 in lacustrine clay or marl ; but they did not in any instance present 

 such appearance. 



It might be supposed that they were carried into the lake by the 

 stream which flowed through it, and in fact their shattered and water- 

 worn appearance has been thus accounted for, but they were entirely 

 out of the coui'se of the torrent, and in a part of the tarn near its- 

 margin that must hare been still water from the first formation of 

 the lake. 



The conclusion at which I have arrived on this part of the subject 

 is, that the remains were deposited where found all at once, and lefare 

 the lahe xvas formed. 



But even though the bones might be deposited all at once where 

 they were found, it does not necessarily follow that the herd perished 

 all at once by any sudden catastrophe. The remains might have been 

 accumulating for many years ; but if such were the case, it is hardly 

 conceivable that there should not be found among them the remains- 

 of even one female. Of the six-and-thirty heads exhumed all were 

 males. I think this one fact negatives the possibility of the accumu- 

 lation extending over many years; it is more probably the result of 

 the final extinction of the vast herd of these noble animals that once- 

 roamed over those hills. 



The absence of female remains has been accounted for by the sup- 

 position that the herd perished by some sudden disease or catastrophe- 

 during the season of the year when the males and females herded 

 separately, which may be roughly stated as from April to October. I 

 think the suggestion very reasonable, and, if true, the remains of the 

 females are to be found in equal quantities at no great distance from 

 the former, probably on the other side of the tarn. 



Had they perished while the two sexes intermingled, i. e., from 

 October to March or April, we might reasonably expect to find their 

 remains mixed in clue proportions ; it seems to me therefore almost 

 certain tliat they did not per i&h during the ivinter months. 



I think it possible, by a similar method of exclusion, to fix the 

 season at which they perished with reasonable probability : e. g., among 

 the six-and-thirty heads exhumed, not one was destitute of antlers ; 

 that is to say, not one of the animals perished during the season 

 between the fall of the antlers and their reproduction, embracing May 

 and the first half of June ; not one during the early stages of growth,, 

 including the remainder of June and July. It would not be possible 

 without microscopical examination to assert that none of the antlers 

 found were in any stage of growth ; but I hope during this summer 

 to make such investigation as will decide this question. 



