426 
precision of that profession, is a small brass spear, with a 
piece of wood still in the socket, with a label stating it to 
have been found in a marl pit, among the bones of a 
Deer. 
In an able paper " On the Geology of the Isle of Man," 
read before the Geological Society of London, in 1845, by 
the Rev. J. G. Cumming, the author remarks : — Whether 
the human race inhabited the island at the time of the older 
alluvium, will admit of question ; but the Elk, which, at any 
rate, was then existing, may have continued as an inhabitant 
of the hills at the time of the submergence of the lowlands, of 
which he resumed the occupancy when the final emergence 
subsequently took place, and those insular lakes were formed 
in which we find the remains of this singular animal associated 
with the implements of human art and industry, though of 
an uncouth and ancient character.* 
Now, as I am not aware that any ancient erections like 
the Irish Forts have been discovered in the Isle of Man, 
some other cause must be assigned for the association of 
human implements and Mammalian remains, if they apper- 
tain to different periods, than the one of Dr. Ball, which 
will only apply to Ireland. 
Besides these forts for defensive purposes, some examples 
of the habitations of the earliest settlers have been dis- 
covered. A wooden house, found under sixteen feet of bog, 
in the county of Donegal, has been described by Captain 
Mudge, which, though skilfully framed — mortised and grooved, 
was evidently the work of a people devoid of metal tools and 
implements, and who subsisted largely on hazel nuts for food. 
Now, the depth at which this dwelling-place was found, indi- 
cates its extreme antiquity ; and if below the bog, it would be 
resting upon the marl, which is the situation of the bones of 
the Megaceros, and therefore most probably of the same date, 
* Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, 1846, p. 345. 
