100 Proceedings oftlie Royal Irish Acaclemij. 



To the alDsence of the Lions, Panther, Spotted Hyeena, and gigan- 

 tic cave Bear may he owing the seeming prevalence of the Irish Elk 

 in Ireland ; but at the same time it is important to hear in mind that 

 the quantities of remains of this ruminant have been obtained under 

 conditions clearly indicating that the individuals had been drowned in 

 lakes which, during the Post-glacial Period, must have been extremely 

 plentiful throughout Ireland, whose physical aspect would have been 

 then inimical to such as the Marmot, Lemmings, Pika, Bison, and 

 Urus, which delight in broad pastures and grassy uplands. 



But the probability is, that the migration came from Scotland, 

 and that there was a land communication between the two countries 

 at the close of the Glacial Period, by which the greater portion of the 

 mammals that had found their ways to Scotland crossed to Ireland. 

 Irrespective of the soundings between northern Ireland and south- 

 western Scotland, there is evidence of the remains of the Mammoth, 

 Ti,eindeer, Irish Elk, and Horse having been found in similar deposits 

 in Ayrshire, Renfrewshire, Lanarkshire, and bed of the Clyde. The 

 Irish Elk has been found in the Isle of Man, and a jaw and teeth of 

 ■the Mammoth in the harbour of Holyhead, whilst on the other hand 

 the caves of Glamorganshire have produced nearly all the English 

 Post-glacial mammals not met with in Scotland or Ireland ; conse- 

 quently, if an uninterrupted land communication existed between 

 south-western England and "Wales, and Ireland, at the close of the 

 Glacial Period, we should expect to find remains of these character- 

 istic mammals, Avhich is not the case. Again, the animals we do find 

 are, for the most part, vagrant species such as the Horse, Mammoth, 

 Reindeer, Bed deer. Bear, Wolf, and Eox,'*^ so that the severance took 

 place before the slow travelling Mole Beaver, the forest-haunting Elk 

 and Roebuck had time to arrive. It has been suggested by my friend 

 Professor Hull, E. R. S.,*^ that there may have been a narrow channel 

 between the islands,' and that the mammals swam across, or arrived 

 on ice-rafts : but looking over the list of the fauna of Ireland, it seems 

 to me that nothing short of a direct land imion will meet the require- 

 ments of the case. 



Excluding the Cetacea, marine Carnivora, and the Chieroptera, it 

 will be found that out of twenty-eight recent species affecting England 

 and "Wales, twenty-six are indigenous to Scotland, and fifteen to Ire- 

 land ; whereas of thirty-two extinct species hitherto recorded for Eng- 

 land and Wales, ten have been found in Scotland, and only seven in 

 Ireland. 



*^ According to Thompson, out of eleven British Amphibians and Reptiles, only 

 iive have been foiind in Ireland, including the AgUe Lizard, tAYO Tritons, and two 

 Frogs, and about the same proportion characterises the lower groups, to wit, the 

 air-breathing Mollusks and land Arthropoda. 



43 "Presidental Address," Journal, Eoyal Geological Society of Ireland, 1875, 

 vol. iv., (N. S.), p. 52. 



