THE RED DEER. 31 



When on a tour through the West and South of Ireland, in the sum- 

 mer of 1834, I was informed that there were, at that time, only twenty- 

 five red-deer in Connaught — thirteen of these in Connemara, and twelve 

 in the harony of Erris. My informant added, that, in the previous year, 

 two full-grown animals (one a stag) were shot with one ball. IJr. Har- 

 vey, in a letter dated 6th October, 1840, remarked, in reference to this 

 species, that it " was, and, I believe, still is, in small numbers in the Gal- 

 tee mountains. County Tipperary." 



Mr. George Jackson, Lord Bantry's gamekeeper, at Glengariff, stated, 

 in a communication Avhich I received from him in February, 1850, that 

 there were still some red-deer there, which were encouraged as much as 

 possible. 



In Payne's " Brife Description of Ireland" (1589), already quoted, we 

 learn that a person might buy '• a fat Pigge, one pound of Butter, or ii. 

 gallons of new milke, for a penny ; a reede deare, without the s/cinne, for 

 ii s. vi d. ; a fat Beefe for xiii s. iiii d. ; a fat mutton for xviii d." 



" The Co. of Maio * * * is rich in cattle, deer, hawks, and 

 honey." — Camden's " Britannia " (Gough's edition), vol. iii. p. 585. 



In the same work (p. 644) it is stated, that the mountains adjacent to 

 Lough Esk (County Donegal) " abound with red-deer." 



The following extract is from a report of a meeting of the Geological 

 Society of Dublin, held on 8th November, 1843 : — 



" Mr. C. W. Hamilton submitted to the notice of the society a magnificent 

 series of the horns of the red-deer {Cervus elaphus), from BalHnderry Lake, 

 County Westmeath. One pair of gigantic proportions, having nineteen tynes, 

 possessed also the unusual qiiahty of being, in huntsman's parlance, ' Doubly 

 Royal,' or giving indication of a double palmation near their terminations ; — an 

 occurrence of a rare kind, and the result of very advanced age in the animal. 

 The lake in which these interesting remains Avere fomid is marshy and shallow ; 

 and when, on a bright day, the tourist gazes down into the clear water, he sees 

 beneath him, protruding from the sedgy bottom, not the ' Round Towers of other 

 days,' but the proud antlers of the ancient and lordly red-deer, as much an ob- 

 ject of wonder and admiration as those structures of human hands which have 

 outlived the ruin of empires. Projecting into the lake is a low promontory of 

 marshy land, the soil of which, when turned up by the spade, is found to con- 

 tain vast numbers of antiques, both of stone and bronze, as well as bones and 

 teeth, with fragments of the horns of the red-deer. At either side of this pro- 

 montory is a row of massive piles or stakes, extending into the lake, below its 

 surface, and converging to a pomt somewliere about its centre. These subaque- 

 ous stakes can be traced until the deepening of the water blots them from the 

 view. From the fact of the antiques being found associated with the remains of 

 the deer, it is clearly proved that these animals were coeval with the earlier 

 settlers on our island, who used the bronze, which has been considered as similar 

 to that ascribed to the Phcenicians. From the appearance of the stakes extend- 

 ing into the lake, Mr. Hamilton proposed an ingenious theory to account for the 

 accumulation of the bones. He supposes the double row of these piles to have 

 formed a snare, used by the early himters to entrap the deer ; and their making 

 it extend into the lake was a mode of construction induced by a long practical 

 experience of the fact, that these animals are much more easily subdued when 

 immersed in water, while swimming, than when encountered on land, even 

 though attacked by that powerful breed of dog then existing, — the Irish hound. 

 The stakes were probably at first elevated above the level of the water, but have 

 been decomposed by the action of the atmosphere and other causes. In the 

 same way, supposing a numerous drove of animals, congregated by a cordon of 

 hunters, to the margin of the lake, and driven into its treacherous waters, many 

 would be destroyed by drowning; and their carcasses, sinking to the bottom, 

 would, after a time, be decomposed, and their bones and antlers be entombed in 



