9 



Bears are, perhaps, of all the carnivora, the most difficult to determine, 

 on account of their mixed diet and their consequent variable denti- 

 tion : they have been as widely distributed in times past, as in our 

 own. 1 



Of the Cervine family, one extinct species, the Megacerds Hibernicus, 

 or Gigantic Irish Deer, deserves especial notice. This splendid 

 animal was not by any means confined to Ireland, although it is 

 quite possible that it may have lingered on in that country after it had 

 been exterminated in Britain. There is a fine specimen of the entire 

 skeleton of this animal in the British Museum. The size of this deer 

 is immense, even when compared with our largest living species; when 

 erect, the topmost prong of his antlers was more than ten feet from the 

 ground, and in breadth across they measured more than nine feet* 

 The bones of the Irish deer occur in the beds of marl which under- 

 lie the peat-bogs, and they are generally very perfect, being stained 

 more or less deeply by tannin or iron, and sometimes partially in- 

 crusted by pale blue phosphate of iron. Even the marrow of the 

 bones occasionally remains in the state of a fatty substance, which 

 will burn with a clear lambent flame. Groups of skeletons have 

 been found crowded together in a small space, in a peat moss, with 

 the skulls elevated and the antlers thrown back upon the shoulders, 

 as if a herd of deer had fled for shelter or been driven into a morass 

 and perished on the spot. Besides the numerous remains of this 

 deer found in Ireland, its bones and horns have been obtained from 

 Kent's Hole, the Forest-bed on the Norfolk coast, Kirkdale Cave, and 

 numerous other localities. 



Of the Oxen, the most ancient is the Bos primigenius. Professor 

 Owen maintains the opinion that this gigantic ox (the JJrus of Caesar., 

 which dwelt in the great Hercynian forest), was never tamed by the 

 Britons or Eomans, but was only an object of the chase. Its 

 remains are alike common to the caves, the river- valley deposits, and 

 the peat-bogs. 



A grand head, and entire horn-cores, with a large proportion of the 

 skeleton of Bos primigenius, was obtained from beneath the peat near 



1 The teeth of pigs, dogs, and bears, are all subject to considerable variation, owing 

 to their mixed diet. 



