438 
to a portion of the skull of the Mammoth, under a stratum of 
clay, underlying peat moss. In October, 1844, antlers and 
various bones of the Red Deer and short-horned Ox were 
found near the city of Worcester, associated with Roman 
pottery, hazel nuts, and trees. Horns of the Red Deer, 
with Roman and British antiquities, were found in the super- 
ficial deposits at Selsey and Bracklesham. Antlers and bones 
of the Red Deer were found associated with remains of the 
Mammoth and Rhinoceros in the fresh-water deposits at 
Brentford and Rugby, in the valley of the Thames, and that 
of the Severn. On the coast of Yorkshire, the remains of 
the Megaceros have been found in a submarine peat, con- 
taining trees with nuts, with bones of Oxen, Red and Fallow 
Deer.* Now, as the Red Deer and Rein-deer still exist 
in Europe, is it unreasonable to conceive that the Giant 
Deer may also have lived, as Mr. Newman observes, 
until the human era commenced, and might still exist 
were it not for the intervention of man himself ? The 
absence of historical records so long before the invention 
of printing is of little avail on this point, as the same argu- 
ment might be employed to show that the round towers of 
Ireland, of which nothing positive is known, were equally 
pre-adamite with her Deer. 
Therefore, with such facts before me as I have just cited, 
although I am willing to concede to geologists that the life- 
periods of the extinct Pachyderms and large Ruminants date 
at an early period in the history of our planet, still I con- 
ceive it is neither unphilosophical nor unwise to endeavour to 
ascertain whether they did not actually exist much nearer 
the present time than is usually supposed, even within the 
human era. From a conviction that in no science more than 
in geology is it necessary to use the utmost caution, both in 
deducing new theories as also retaining too tenaciously 
* Phillips's Geology of Yorkshire. 
