208 Mr. J. Hardy on Fossil Antlers of the Roe-huck 



Greatest circumference 3| inches 



Interval between it and the third, same as No. 1. 



Length of the third branch 4 by 5| „ 



Greatest breadth (it is flatter than the second) 1^ „ 

 Greatest circumference, increased by a | . j^ 



ridge on the back j * " 



Length of the fourth branch, on its inner | ^^ 



aspect _....) ^ " 



Length externally, or from the wrist to ) , ^ 



the tip ) ^" 



Breadth 1| „ 



Greatest circumference 3f „ 



Interval between it and the third, 2, 4, and 4^ „ 

 In their development, the antlers of this stately animal 

 sometimes attained a vast extent. One dug out of a marl 

 pit near Drogheda, in Ireland, described by Dr. Molyneux in 

 the " Philosophical Transactions" for 1697, had antlers 10ft. 

 10 in. in expansion. Professor Owen mentions the palm of 

 one reaching the breadth of three feet. As regards the size 

 of the animal itself, the skeleton discovered in the Isle of Man, 

 in 1821, and now in the Edinburgh University Museum, is 

 6ft. 1 in.. high, exclusive of the neck and antlers; and the 

 body is 5 ft. 2 in. in length, (See Edinburgh Philosophical 

 Journal, VIII., 1823, p. 198.) The skeleton figured in 

 OAven's work, p. 444, is in height 10 ft. 4 in. to the summit of 

 the antlers. 



The remains of the Megaceros are abundant in the marl 

 beneath peat bogs in Ireland. The English localities are 

 Folkstone in Kent, Walton in Essex, Norfolk, and the peat of 

 lacustrine deposits in Yorkshire. According to Owen it was 

 a contemporary of the older Uri and Bisontes, and its other 

 associates in the pasturage of the ancient lands, were the Red 

 Deer, the Roe-buck, and the Goat, together with a Wild Horse, 

 a Wild Ass, and the Wild Boar, " It was once imagined," 

 says De la Beche, " to have existed only at an epoch anterior 

 to man, but it is now considered that it was co-existent with 

 him; although this by no means proves that it did not live 

 upon the earth previous to him, as seems to have been the 

 case." 



PLATE 11. 



Back view of Palm of Antler of Megaceros Hibernicus, Coldingham. 



