THE GIANT DEER. 11 



d. Possible Cause of the Frequent Occurrence op the Skull without the 



Rest op the Skeleton. 

 A possible explanation is suggested by Williams, who, writing in 1881, remarked 

 that in the previous thirty years nearly a hundred skulls had been found in Bally- 

 betagh bog, but scarcely six skeletons. He stated that the atlas vertebra was in 

 almost every case found with the skull, and suggested that when the carcase decayed, 

 the head and antlers separated off with the atlas and sank, while the rest of the 

 carcase was carried away by currents out of the lake. In one case the legs were found 

 with the skull, the trunk having apparently floated away. 



e. Cause of the Preponderance of the Skulls of the Male. 



It has always been recognized that this is probably to be attributed to the great 

 weight of the antlers causing the male to be more frequently bogged. According to 

 Porte, a possible cause of the 36 skulls found at Ballybetagh being all male is that 

 the animals perished through some sudden catastrophe when the stags and hinds 

 herded apart. Dr. Scharff suggests in a letter that possibly the Deer went into 

 Ballybetagh lake, which is one of the highest localities where they have been found, 

 merely to escape the plague of flies at certain seasons of the year, and then got mired 

 occasionally in the weeds. 



The preponderance of male skulls may sometimes be more apparent than real, for 

 Dr. Scharff writes : ' When a skull without antlers is found during the digging for 

 peat, it is generally broken up and considered worthless, being often mistaken for a 

 horse's skull, whereas the stags' skulls are known always to fetch a good price." 



f. Concerning the Contemporaneity or Otherwise of the Irish Giant Deer 



with Man in the British Isles. 



The question as to the contemporaneity of the Irish Giant Deer with Man is one 

 which has attracted naturalists from the earliest times, and although the clearness 

 of the continental evidence for contemporaneity, particularly in France and Croatia, 

 has caused the interest in the subject to be now mainly historical, it may still be well 

 to state the opinions and arguments of the various writers on the subject. 



Molyneux, the earliest describer of the Irish Giant Deer, says that it became extinct 

 in Ireland so long ago that no tradition of its former existence survives. Owen (30), 

 who discusses the subject, remarks that " the total silence of Caesar and Tacitus 

 respecting such animals renders their existence and subsequent extirpation by the 

 savage natives a matter of the highest improbability." Later writers have held 

 conflicting views. Thus, Richardson (1846) (31) maintained that it was contemporary 

 with Man and hunted by him for food and clothing, and as evidence of its relatively 

 recent extinction stated that he had often peeled the periosteum off the bone. 

 Mantell (1851) (35) considered that it was probably exterminated by the Celtic tribes. 

 The evidence available at the time of writing (1859) was assembled by Denny (40) 



