1898 - 99 .] Prof. Duns on Early Post-Pliocene Mammals. 697 
with instructions to sell it to an ivory-turner. This being reported 
to Sir Alexander, he hastened to the city, where he found it in 
the hands of the ivory-turner, who had already sawn it across 
in three places, and had prepared one of the parts for the lathe, 
in order to form chessmen. Sir Alexander repaid the money 
which had been given for it, and gave it a place in Cliftonhall 
as a very highly-prized specimen. There is abundant evidence 
that the naturalists of the day were greatly interested in and 
put a high value on the tusk. At Sir Alexander’s death it passed 
into possession of his son, John Maitland, Esq., late Accountant 
of the Court of Session, and was given by him to me in 1864. 
There has been a good deal of controversy touching both as 
to the nature of the deposit and the depth in it where it was 
found. I think it can be proved that it was not at a depth of 
from 15 to 20 feet, but only near the surface. It was never 
placed in the university or the National Museum, as Sir Charles 
Lyell and others have alleged. 
II. The so-called Greater Ked-Deer ( Cervus elajofius, L.). This is 
the Strongylocerus of Owen. The antlers on the table are fine 
examples of the horns of this variety of red-deer. They were 
found at a point a little below the surface of a dried-up pond near 
Kingskettle, Eife. The term “ greater ” ascribed to this form is 
warranted by the fact that many of its remains seem to indicate an 
animal of larger growth than the present common red-deer. They 
occur deep down in peat bogs, marl beds, and in the sites of lochs 
long dried up. Deer-stalkers generally are of opinion that there is 
a slow but real declension going on among stags. If so, there must 
be a cause. Does it result from the ever-increasing narrowing of 
the areas of range, or from the growing scarcity of favourite food, 
or from the changeful elements of civilisation, with its railways and 
steamboats bearing in on their usual haunts, or from all these 
things working together begetting, as Owen once alleged, a rest- 
lessness not favourable to growth? 
The horns seem to have been torn off, not shed. Their weight 
is 23 lbs. 14 ozs. Looking at them as right and left, the former is 
11 lbs. 10 ozs., the latter 12 lbs. 4 ozs. This discrepancy between 
the two appears also when they are measured, thus : — 
2 Y 
YOL. XXII. 
6/99 
