42 



GEOLOGY. 



Table-case 10 is also occupied by limb-bones and other remains oi 

 Bovida, mostly from Ilford. 



Fig. 11.— The Musk-Ox (Ovibos moschatus). 



Pier-case 9, and Table-cases 10a and 11. — The Deer-tribe (Cervidce) 

 are solid-horned ruminants with bare antlers* (not covered with a 

 horny sheath supported on a bony core like the oxen). They are 

 well represented both by entire skeletons, in the centre of the 

 Gallery, and also by a fine series of detached heads and horns of 

 various species of the deer-tribe in and upon the wall-cases. 



In addition to the Fallow Deer, the Koebuck and the Red Deer, 

 which still linger on (preserved in our parks and forests), we once pos- 

 sessed that King of the Deer-tribe, the Cervus (Megaceros) hibernicus, so 

 named from the abundance and perfect preservation of its remains 

 met with in the shell-marls, beneath the peat-bogs in Ireland. An 

 entire skeleton of the male, with antlers spreading a little over 9 feet 

 across,f and of the hornless female stand in the centre of the Gal- 

 lery. {See Fig. 12.) We also had the true elk (Alces malchis) and 

 the Reindeer. Thousands of fragments of the shed antlers of the 

 Reindeer have been obtained at Gower, South Wales, from fissures 

 in the limestone rock. The broken skulls with the bases of antlers 

 attached may also be seen from the cave of Bruniquel, and a fine 

 entire antler embedded in stalagmite from Brixham Cave near Tor- 

 quay. (See Wall-case 1.) 



The antlers of the deer tribe are shed and renewed annually, increasing in size 

 with age, a new "snag" or tine marking each year, being added to the new antler. 

 The horns of the oxen are never renewed, but last as long as the animal lives. 



f Heads and horns of several others are placed on the tops of the adjacent wall- 

 cases. Some are of even greater breadth. 



