422 
The most minute account of a mound of this description, 
is that given by Mr. Wilde, in the 1st Vol. of the Royal 
Irish Academy's Reports, when recording the exhuma- 
tion of a quantity of skulls and bones of Cattle, Deer, Goats, 
and Swine near the village of Dunshaughlin. At about ten 
miles from Limerick is a small lake called Lough Gur, 
having in the middle an island with one of these forts ; 
some time since, in consequence of a canal having been cut 
by the proprietor, the water was lowered many feet, which 
rendered visible a quantity of bones; these were so abundant 
that the tenants carted them to Limerick for shipment to 
London and Liverpool to be ground for manure ; upon this 
island and in the surrounding lake, the bones of five species 
of Deer, including the Megaceros, five species of Oxen, the 
Goat, Swine, and several other smaller animals and birds ; also 
swords, spear heads, and other implements of man, were found 
by Messrs. Glennon and Nolan, of Dublin. The skulls of the 
Cattle and Swine had large ragged fractures in the frontal 
bone exactly similar to those which appear in the skulls of 
Bullocks slaughtered at the present day with the pole-axe. 
There was no reason for doubting that the animals to which 
these skulls belonged had also met their death from the hands 
of man. Besides the above, however, were two reputed skulls 
of the female Gigantic Deer, which presented the same frac- 
tures, and were, consequently, supposed to have resulted from 
the same cause. This circumstance was announced in the 
Dublin Evening Post, for November 14, 1846, and as might 
be expected, created no little interest ; for such an occurrence, 
if true, would undoubtedly settle the question as to the pre- 
adamite epoch of the Deer. These skulls were examined by 
Professor Owen and Dr. Ball, and pronounced to be those 
of males from which the horns had been forcibly torn off. 
This assertion was as warmly opposed by Messrs. Richard- 
son, Newman, and Glennon, who positively pronounced the 
