413 
Julius Capitolinus and Oppian, upon which he hases his 
argument, are not sufficiently definite to warrant us in sup- 
posing that under the designation of Cervi palmati or 
Cervus euryceros, the Megaceros in particular is alluded to, 
especially when we know that the Elk and Fallow Deer were 
exhibited and distinctly mentioned by Caesar, Pausanias, 
and Pliny. I am, however, by no means disposed to agree 
with some writers, that the most powerful argument against 
the probability of the Giant Deer having existed during 
historic times, is the silence of our earliest historians ; viz., 
Caesar and Tacitus on the subject, who it is presumed 
would have been familiar with it after the subjugation of 
Britain ! This apparent negative testimony, I consider, 
ought to be received with due caution, from the fact, that the 
animal does not appear to have been extensively, but on the 
contrary, very partially distributed, and consequently less 
likely to have become generally known to new settlers in 
the country; and also that the Elephant, Hippopotamus, 
Rein-deer, and Bear, were supposed not to have been 
indigenous in Ireland, solely because no historic notice was in 
existence respecting them. Yet the bones of all these 
animals have been found, and that the large cave Bear was 
contemporary with the Megaceros is satisfactorily deter- 
mined, and was probably, as Dr. Ball remarks, the carnivor- 
ous restrainer of the increase of that mighty ruminant in 
Ireland. The Roman historians have left us no indication 
that the Elk was ever a native of Britain, yet a tolerably well 
authenticated instance is on record of the horn of this animal 
having been exhumed in the Isle of Man, in this same 
formation as the Megaceros ; but whether introduced at a 
remote period by the Scandinavian settlers, it is impossible 
to determine. The other authority upon which Dr. Hibbert 
rests his belief that the animal was not extinct in 1550, is 
derived from a scarce work by Sebastian Munster, dedicated 
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