Quadrupeds . 1591 



or crowned stag. The fourth species has eight or nine sharp 

 and very long tynes, but not crowned. The fifth is the fallow deer, 

 varying very remarkably in size. The skulls of cows or oxen w r ere 

 of five kinds. First, with a very broad square face quite flat and al- 

 most smooth, and much larger than that of any ox of the present day : 

 one of our professors here considers this the skull of the Urus, but I 

 think that animal has never reached Ireland, and therefore, in the ab- 

 sence of the necessary means of comparison, we must distinguish it by 

 the name of the " flat-faced ox. 1 ' The second in size is large 

 and strong and has the face concave, and the skull crowned by a 

 projection between the horns : the slugs on the bony elongations of 

 the skull are long and spreading. The third has the skull very 

 smooth and very different in texture from the two already described : 

 it is also deeper from the under jaw to the face than either of 

 the others : the frontal bone is very long, and is rounded at the sides : 

 this animal must have had a remarkably long face. I must observe 

 that the skulls of all these three are much longer than those of any 

 oxen we now possess ; and I may observe, the bony peduncles of the 

 horns are not in any instance directed backwards as in the buffalo, 

 but invariably take the same direction as in our recent oxen. The 

 fourth is a long-faced kind, with small thin horns, curling inwards. 

 The fifth is what might be called the short-horned breed, and ap- 

 pears identical with that which we are now importing from England ; 

 but these skulls furnish sufficient proof that this breed w T as originally 

 Irish. The skulls of goats resemble those of the common species, ex- 

 cept that the horns have a greater inclination backwards like those of 

 antelopes. The skulls of hogs or pigs are very different from those 

 of our domesticated swine : one skull in particular has a snout or 

 face more like that of an alligator, being very long, and the space be- 

 tween the teeth on the palate of the mouth not exceeding an inch and 

 a half,* although the bone from the angle of the eye to the extremity 

 of the nose, is nine inches in length. It is worthy of remark, that all 

 the tusks we met with were nearly of the same size, so that it would 

 appear that the pigs were all brought to be slaughtered at nearly the 

 same age. 



Now, I consider the discovery of the fractured skulls of the giant 

 deer, under the circumstances above described, to be the most con- 



* I may perhaps be allowed to state that this character does not exhibit any simi- 

 larity to that of the alligator, although immediately following the comparison, it seems 

 thus intended. — Ed. 



