SciiAKi'F, Seymour, and Nkwton — Castlepook Cave. fil 



Lonnberg, attach greater importance to the position and structure of certain 

 bones of the skull. 



Antlers occur in the Eeindeer in both sexes, and they are shed annually. 

 Some shed antleis were excavated from the cave. A great many antlers had 

 portions of the skull adhering to them. Altogether I counted 217 antler 

 fragments. These seemed to belong to two types. Some had the two tines 

 close to the skull, viz., the brow- tine and the bez-tine. In other antlers the 

 first or brow-tine was absent. These are probably sexual characters. In one 

 heavy shed antler fragment there were three tines close together. It had 

 so much the look of a Red Deer antler that I was in doubt for a considerable 

 time as to its correct identification. The position of the brow-tine in relation 

 to the burr finally solved the question in favour of the Eeindeer. Just above 

 this tine (M.D. 230) the main shaft of the antler had a diameter of 54 mill. 

 The heaviest antler measured 57 mill, in diameter. The antlers were of all 

 sizes. Some belonged to very immature specimens. The antlers of the 

 females were much smaller and more slender than those of the males. The 

 length and number of tines is subject to great variation in the same race 

 of the lleindeer, whereas the shape of the beam seems to be of a more fixed 

 character. Professor Camerano 1 indeed urges that in one type of Reindeer 

 antlers the beam tends to elongate and to become cylindrical throughout its 

 length. The second type includes those antlers in which the beam inclines 

 to become shortened and flattened. The same writer states that to the first 

 group belong the Reindeer of Norway, Greenland, Spitsbergen, and Arctic 

 America, while the second group inhabits Siberia and northern North 

 America. 



As all the antlers which have been found in the Castlepook cave are long 

 and rounded, and mostly slender, with generally a posterior tine about midway 

 between the two ends, the race of Reindeer which formerly inhabited Ireland 

 must be referred to Camerano's first type. It should, therefore, be related to 

 the races or varieties still living in Norway, Greenland, Spitsbergen, and Arctic 

 America. 



Reindeer remains are by no means confined to this cave in the County 

 Cork. The species has been recorded from Shandon cave, Co. Waterford ; 

 from the Kesh caves, Co. Sligo ; and from the caves of Clare. It has occurred, 

 moreover, in bogs and marls at Coonagh, Co. Limerick; at Mullingar, 

 Co. Westmeath ; at Ballyguiry, Co. Waterford; at Ashbourne, Co. Meath ; 

 and at Ballybetagh, Co. Dublin. The antlers of the specimens referred to, so 

 far as they have been preserved, resemble in their general characters those 



1 Camerano : loc. cit., p. 106. 



