412 
Ireland, at least, had been destroyed by some overwhelming 
deluge, and that they were probably drowned upon the hills 
where they had taken refuge as the waters rose, and that as 
they subsided, their carcases were drawn from thence into the 
valleys in which they are generally found ; that the agitation of 
the waters occasioned the dispersion of the bones when the 
ligaments were decomposed, which thus accounts for the 
scattered position in which the bones invariably occur. 
Dr. Hibbert, however, in describing the situation in the 
Isle of Man, where the bones occur, observes, — It is fatal to 
the notion that a herd had been destroyed by any sudden and 
unexpected flood, for it is difficult to conceive of any ordinary 
torrent, however rapid it might be, which could have suc- 
ceeded in preventing the animals, on any such emergency, 
from securing their escape by repairing to the numerous 
eminences, which are immediately contiguous to the marl pits 
in which their bones are at present found. 
The Claims of the Megaceros to be considered Contem- 
porary with Man. 
As, then, it appears probable that the extinction of 
the Megaceros was principally brought about by the 
gradual operation of natural causes, the next question to 
consider is, whether the last remaining stragglers of this 
noble animal were contemporary with the earliest human 
settlers in Western Europe ; and if so, whether man may 
not also have co-operated in extirpating the species. This 
is a point invested with especial interest, and the evidence in 
support of such a supposition to which we must refer, is both 
historical and geological. Dr. Hibbert has ingeniously 
attempted to prove that the Megaceros was not only known 
to the Romans and exhibited in their games, but actually 
existed in the wilds of Prussia as late as the year 1550. 
The former of these points, however, I by no means think 
he has succeeded in establishing, as the passages from 
