1868.] BOYD JDAWKINS FOSSIL DEER FROM CLACTON. 513 



brow-tyne are repeated also in the second, or bez-antler; both are 

 nearly of the same length. From the base of the second tyne, c, the 

 beam gradually becomes more and more flattened up to the palmated 

 third (PI. XVII. fig. 4, d), which is unfortunately broken in all the 

 specimens ; thence it gradually expands into the broad and flattened 

 crown (fig. 4, h), the summit of which has been broken away from 

 the nearly perfect antler, fig. 4, chosen as the type of the species. 

 It presents, however, two bi'oad, oval, fractured surfaces, which 

 meet at the point h, where the texture becomes dense and hard, in- 

 dicating that the hard cortical layer of the antler was not far dis- 

 tant ; while, on the other hand, the loose texture in the centre of each 

 of these surfaces shows that the crown was prolonged some little 

 distance in their directions. An inference might therefore be drawn 

 that not very much of the apex is lost, merely two, or at most three 

 tyncs. Fortunately, however, we are not left to guess at the shape 

 of the latter. A broad palmated fragment, possessed of two tynes 

 (PL XYII. fig. 7, e and/), was found in association with the antlers, 

 which cannot be referred to the Red Deer or Irish Elk, found also at 

 Clacton. The deep excavation between the tynes would forbid its 

 being identified with a palmated fi^agment of antler of Heindeer, 

 a species as yet unknown in Essex, Sufifolk, or Norfolk ; and there- 

 fore the supposition that it belongs to Cervus Brovmi amounts 

 almost to a certainty ; and if so, then it could only belong to the 

 crown. The broad and deep excavation, fig. 7 h, above mentioned, 

 brings the cortical layer of dense osseous tissue on either side into 

 juxtaposition, and explains exactly why the two layers should be 

 thus brought together at the point h of the fractured apex of fig. 4. 

 I have therefore restored the crown of the antler, fig. 4, according 

 to the light thrown upon it by the fragment fig. 7. At the base of 

 /, in fig 4, a small rounded back tyne is given off in a backward and 

 upward dii'ection. The beam, looked at from behind, presents a 

 somewhat sigmoidal contour, the basal eighth being abruptly re- 

 flected. 



3. Measurements. — In the following Table the variations in the 

 the size of the antlers are shown. They are not compared with those 

 of Fallow-deer, because in the latter the antlers have been modified 

 to such a degree by domestication that their measurements are of 

 very little value. It is sufficient to say, in general terms, that the 

 antlers of the Clacton deer correspond in size with the average of 

 those of the Fallow-deer in the English collections. 



The maximum circumference of the beam is 5-8, the minimum 

 30 inches. 



2n2 



