X PREFACE. 



out of the lacastrine shell-marl beneath the peat or bog-earth," 

 Now, T believe, from what I myself saw and heard in Ireland and 

 what has lately been written by Mr. Richardson, that this is not 

 quite a correct statement of the case : the bones occur in a 

 recent deposit (called with what propriety I know not, "calcareous 

 tuffa ") which rarely contains shells, and never any other than recent 

 species ; which always overlies the marl and sometimes overlies 

 the peat. To this it must be added that the bones are almost 

 invariably found in apparently artificial excavations, and in close 

 proximity to the so-called raths or Danish forts. 



Add to these facts that " the marrow in some of the bones although 

 changed into spermaceti [?] blazes like a candle,"* that "the car- 

 tilage and gelatine, so far from having been destroyed, were not 

 apparently altered by time : "f that Archdeacon Maunsell actually 

 made soup of the bones, and presented a portion thereof to the 

 Royal Dublin Society : that the bones are frequently used for fuel : 

 and that on the occasion of the rejoicings for the battle of Waterloo, 

 a bonfire was made of these bones, and it was observed they gave 

 out as good a blaze as those of horses, often used for such pur- 

 poses : % and we shall surely find it very difficult to resist the 

 evidence now adduced by Messrs. Glennon and Nolan, that these 

 creatures not only existed in Ireland to an indefinite period after 

 it was peopled by man, but that they were systematically, I 

 might almost say, scientifically, slaughtered for his use. 



At the first cursory glance, it may appear somewhat strange that 

 the skulls of the males should invariably have been found entire, and 

 that even the recent discovery at Lough Gur should form no excep- 

 tion. I do not, however, find any difficulty here : in the first place 

 we may fairly suppose that the males, like our bulls, were not equally 

 prized as food : in the second place, the size, as well as the position 

 of the antlers, would render it next to an impossibility to give 

 the desired blow with the poleaxc : in the third place, the greater 



' Fossil Deer of Ireland,' by John Hart, Dublin, 1825, p. 8. 

 t ' Report* of Analysis,' by James Anjohn. \ Hart. 



