﻿INTRODUCTION. xxvii 



jaw detected by M. Lartet among the remains from the cave of Llandebie, in the Oxford 

 Museum. 1 It was associated with remains of Ursus arctos. 



Genus Megaceros. Species Megaceros hibernicus, Owen. — More closely allied to the 

 preceding than to any of the existing mammalia is the great extinct Irish elk — the most 

 gigantic of the deer tribe, generally found not only in the caverns and gravels of the 

 Pleistocene, but also in the lacustrine marls of the Prehistoric period. 



Genus Cervus. Species Cervus tarandus, Linn. — On the borders of "the Barren 

 Grounds" in North America, Sir John Richardson tells us " there are two varieties of rein- 

 deer, the larger inhabiting the woods and living upon grass as well as lichens, the smaller 

 living entirely on lichens, and ranging into the extreme northern latitudes." In our caverns 

 and river-deposits there are traces of reindeer, also of two sizes. The hyaenas of Wookey 

 Hole and of Kirkdale preyed upon both the larger and the smaller deer. The fossil 

 antlers, like the recent, vary to such a degree in size and form, and in the position of the 

 brow-antler, that scarcely any two can be found alike. They may however, roughly, be 

 divided into two classes by their size. On the larger series is based the variety C. Buclc- 

 landi, of Professor Owen ; on the smaller C. Guettardi, of Baron Cuvier. The antlers 

 from Banwell are all of the large variety. The remains of reindeer are so incredibly 

 numerous in some caverns that Colonel Wood obtained upwards of 1000 antlers in one 

 cave in Pembrokeshire. 



Species Cervus elaphus, Linn. — Two varieties of red deer, a large and a small, are 

 found both in the caverns and in the river-deposits. Professor Owen terms the larger — 

 from the large size of its antlers — Stronggloceros spelaus. It is probably the Pleistocene 

 representative of the large variety of red deer (Waipiti), now ranging on both sides of the 

 Rocky Mountains, from the Columbia River at least as far north as the Saskatchewan, from 

 North latitude 45° to 55°. It is a very curious fact that in tracing the red deer (C. elaphus) 

 from the Pleistocene times down to the present in Western Europe, there is, from some un- 

 known cause, a diminution of the size of the antlers. Thus, those of the variety Stronggloceros 

 spelcsus, are vastly larger than those of the Prehistoric period, while the latter greatly 

 surpass in size the red deer now living on the Scotch moors. That the large Prehistoric 

 variety lived on in Britain into the times of history, is proved by its discovery near 

 Worcester, in 1844, in association with the remains of Bos longifrons* — "fragments of 

 Roman urns and pans of red earth, and a piece of Samian ware." A coin of Marcus 

 Aurelius was also found that would bring the elate of the whole deposit to some time 

 posterior to the year a.d. 161. The increase of population, and the encroachment of the 

 cultivated lands on the lower grounds, more favorable in climate and food for the support 

 of the deer, by forcing them to take refuge in higher and inhospitable districts where the 

 herbage is scanty, were the probable causes of this diminution in size. 



1 ' Kevue Archeologique,' 1864. 



2 Brit. Foss. Mam. p. 475. 



