84 NOTES ON THE RED-DEER. RY G. P. HIJGHES 



Cassel, etc., on the sites of the vast primeval forests of Thuringia 

 and Franeonia, where giant specimens of Mammalia at one time 

 abounded, was their equal likely to be met with. I have, there- 

 fore, thought it desirable, as I have no descendants of my own, 

 to have this specimen photographed, and a copy sent to some of 

 our national Museums, and scientific Magazines, in order to have 

 the existence, of this fine pair of antlers of the Cervus elaphus, 

 recorded in proper form. 



Measure))ient of the Antlers preserved at Middle tott Hall. 



ft. ins. 



1. Width from inside to inside of the crown. . 2 8 



2. Length of the beam to leading crown tine 3 6 



3. Width from outside to inside of beam at crown 3 10 



4. Circumference of the crowns (left). , . . 3 5 



5. „ ,, ,, (right) .. 3 8 



6. Width of skull at stem 6 



7. Circumference of stem at base .. .. 10 



8. Number of points upon the two stems or beams 21 

 This set of antlers, with several of less size, with entire 



skeletons of red-deer measuring 15 hands in height, one foot 

 taller than the red-deer now extant, were exhumed from a 

 lacustrine deposit of pleistocene marl and peat, known as the 

 Cresswell Bog, an offshoot of the Glendale Lake, which, towards 

 the close of the Glacial epoch, had spread over the valley 

 immediately to the East of the Cheviot Hills. The Geological 

 conditions are interesting, and agree with the principle laid 

 down by Sir A. Geikie. " Over the tracts from which the ice 

 sheet retired, lakes are usually scattered in large numbers. 

 Where the detritus has been strewn thickly over the ground, 

 they lie in hollows of the clay, earth, sand, or gravel, dating 

 back to the time when the various drifts were laid down." 



The Cresswell lakelet, or arm of Glendale Lake, rested upon 

 blue clay detritus, intermixed with gravel, over which a bed of 

 marl had, in the course of ages, been formed by fresh water 

 shells. This formation varies from 5 to 8 feet in thickness, and 

 in it were found remains of red-deer, teeth of boar, and horns 

 of the Bos primigenius, which I have submitted to the inspection 

 of Professor Boyd Dawkins. With the thickening of this 

 formation, and the draining off of the surface water, a covering 

 of moss has been formed, intermixed with which are prostrate 

 trees of oak, birch, hazel, and alder. 



