PREFACE. IX 



an opinion of my own. Still the existence of the remains of 

 this extraordinary quadruped beyond the limits of Ireland is 

 thoroughly established ; and from the evidence afforded by the for- 

 mations in which they have been found, Professor Owen pro- 

 nounces the giant deer to have been synchronous with the " Mam- 

 moth, rhinoceros, and other extinct Mammalia of the period of the 

 formation of the newest tertiary freshwater fossiliferous strata," 

 and he altogether repudiates the idea of its having been co-ex- 

 istent with man. Now we have only to refer to two of its con- 

 geners, the rein-deer and red deer, — both unquestionably fossil, — 

 and I select them from a multitude of examples, to show that 

 it is quite possible, indeed quite natural and probable, that the 

 giant deer should have lived on until the human era commenced ; 

 aye, might still exist, were it not for the intervention of man himself! 

 The absence of historical records, so long before the invention of 

 printing, although so strenuously urged, would really amount to 

 nothing : the same argument might be employed to show that the 

 round towers of Ireland were equally pre-adamite w r ith her deer : 

 for neither Caesar nor Tacitus throw any light on the queslio 

 vexata of their date and use : but we are not absolutely without 

 records, for " Pepper in his ' History of Ireland ' expressly states 

 that the ancient Irish used to hunt a very large black deer, the 

 milk of which they used, as we do that of the cow ; the flesh 

 of which served them for food and the skin for clothing."* And 

 again, " Sir William Betham found some bronze or brass tablets, 

 the inscription on which attested that the ancient Irish fed upon 

 the flesh and milk of a great black deer."f 



The position in which the remains of this animal are found, 

 appear to me to be mistaken by Professor Owen : he takes great 

 pains to show that in Ireland he " met with no person who had 

 seen them in the peat itself. In every case," says the Professor, 

 " where more definite information was afforded by an eye-witness of 

 their discovery, it appeared that the antlers and bones had been dug 



* ' Gigantic Irish Deer,' by H. D. Richardson, p. 25. f Id. 



