80 ME. E. T. NEWTON ON [Feb. 1903^ 



10. The Elk (Alces machlis, Ogilby) in the Thames Valley. 

 By Edwin Tflley Newton, Esq., E.R.S., F.G.S. (Head 

 December 17th, 1902.) l 



[Plate V.] 



That the elk, Aloes machlis, was an inhabitant of Great Britain in 

 prehistoric times is now an established fact. Sir Richard Owen, in 

 1846, did not obtain satisfactory evidence of the elk as a British 

 fossil, and consequently the genus is not included among his 

 'British Eossil Mammals' published at that date: writing, how- 

 ever, in 1869, 2 he accepted the recorded discovery of elk-remains 

 in a peaty bed in Northumberland, and himself described certain 

 bones of the same species from a similar peaty deposit at 

 Walthamstow, Essex. In the light of more recent discoveries, it 

 seems likely that some of the earlier accounts of the discovery of 

 elk-remains, which had been discredited, were really founded on 

 bones or antlers of Alces machlis, and were not, as had been thought 

 jjossible, due to a wrong determination of the specimens, or to the 

 misuse of the name ' elk.' However that may be, numerous reliable 

 accounts have since been published, which have established the 

 occurrence of the true elk (Alces machlis) in a semifossil state at 

 numerous localities in both England and Scotland. Two specimens 

 referable to Alces machlis are said to have been found in Ireland. 

 One is a skull with antlers, preserved in the Belfast Museum ; but 

 Leith Adams, 3 having specially examined this skull, came to the 

 conclusion that it was of recent origin and had been imported into 

 Ireland. The second specimen was mentioned by Hermann von 

 Meyer 4 in 1832. He gave a figure of an undoubted elk-antler, said 

 to be from Ireland, preserved in the Museum at Leyden. Unfortu- 

 nately, its precise locality and horizon are unknown. 



A full account of the discoveries of elk-remains in the British 

 Isles previous to the year 1872 is given by John Alexander Smith, 5 

 who mentions more than twenty localities where such remains have 

 been found, extending from Sutherland to Essex. The greater 

 number of these records are from the southern parts of Scotland and 

 the northern parts of England : the southernmost locality being 

 Walthamstow in Essex, recorded by Owen (he. cit.) in 1869. The 

 specimens described by Owen from "Walthamstow I have examined 

 in the Natural History Museum, and see no reason for doubting 

 the identification. 



In the year 1863 Edouard Lartet c saw in the Oxford University 



1 Communicated bv permission of the Director of H.M. Geological Survey. 



2 Geol. Mag. vol. vi (1869) p. 389. 



3 Journ. Roy. Geol. Soc. Irel. n. s. vol. iv (1877) p. 248. 



4 Nova Acta Acad. Cass. Leop.-Car. vol. xvi (1832) p. 471. 



5 Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot. vol. ix (1872) p. 297. 



G ' Revue Archeologique ' n. s. vol. ix (1864) p. 250, footnote. 



