THE RED DEER. 
31 
When on a tour through the West and South of Ireland, in the sum- 
mer of 1834, I was informed that there were, at that time, only twenty- 
five red-deer in Connaught — thirteen of these in Connemara, and twelve 
in the barony of Erris. My informant added, that, in the previous year, 
two full-grown animals (one a stag) were shot with one ball. Dr. Har- 
vey * in a letter dated 6th October, 1840, remarked, in reference to this 
species, that it “ was, and, I believe, still is, in small numbers in the Gal- 
tee mountains, County Tipperary.” 
Mr. George Jackson, Lord Bantry’s gamekeeper, at Glengariff, stated, 
in a communication which I received from him in February, 1850, that 
there were still some red-deer there, which were encouraged as much as 
possible. 
In Payne’s “ Brife Description of Ireland” (1589), already quoted, we 
learn that a person might buy “ a fat Pigge, one pound of Butter, or ii. 
gallons of new milke, for a penny ; a reede deare, ivithout the s/cinne, for 
ii s. vi d. ; a fat Beefe for xiii s. iiii d. ; a fat mutton for xviii d.” 
“ The Co. of Maio * * * is rich in cattle, deer, hawks, and 
honey.” — Camden’s “Britannia” (Gough’s edition), vol. iii. p. 585. 
In the same work (p. 644) it is stated, that the mountains adjacent to 
Lough Esk (County Donegal) “ abound with red-deer” 
The following extract is from a report of a meeting of the Geological 
Society of Dublin, held on 8th November, 1843 : — 
“ Mr. C. W. Hamilton submitted to the notice of the society a magnificent 
series of the horns of the red-deer ( Cervus elaphus), from Ballinderry Lake, 
County Westmeath. One pair of gigantic proportions, having nineteen tynes, 
possessed also the unusual quality of being, in huntsman’s parlance, ‘ Doubly 
Royal,’ or giving indication of a double palmation near their terminations an 
occurrence of a rare kind, and the result of very advanced age in the animal. 
The lake in which these interesting remains were found is marshy and shallow ; 
and when, on a bright day, the tourist gazes down into the clear water, he sees 
beneath him, protruding from the sedgy bottom, not the e Round Towers of other 
days,’ but the proud antlers of the ancient and lordly red-deer, as much an ob- 
ject of wonder and admiration as those structures of human hands which have 
outlived the ruin qf empires. Projecting into the lake is a low promontory of 
marshy land, the soil of which, when turned up by the spade, is found to con- 
tain vast numbers of antiques, both of stone and bronze, as well as bones and 
teeth, with fragments of the horns of the red-deer. At either side of this pro- 
montory is a row of massive piles or stakes, extending into the lake, below its 
surface, and converging to a point somewhere about its centre. These subaque- 
ous stakes can be traced until the deepening of the water blots them from the 
view. From the fact of the antiques being found associated with the remains of 
the deer, it is clearly proved that these animals were coeval with the earlier 
settlers on our island, who used the bronze, which has been considered as similar 
to that ascribed to the Phoenicians. From the appearance of the stakes extend- 
ing into the lake, Mr. Hamilton proposed an ingenious theory to account for the 
accumulation of the bones. He supposes the double row of these piles to have 
formed a snare, used by the early hunters to entrap the deer ; and their making 
it extend into the lake was a mode of construction induced by a long practical 
experience of the fact, that these animals are much more easily subdued when 
immersed in water, while swimming, than when encountered on land, even 
though attacked by that powerful breed of dog then existing, — the Irish hound. 
The stakes were probably at first elevated above the level of the water, but have 
been decomposed by the action of the atmosphere and other causes. In the 
same way, supposing a numerous drove of animals, congregated by a cordon of 
hunters, to the margin of the lake, and driven into its treacherous waters, many 
would be destroyed by drowning ; and their carcasses, sinking to the bottom, 
would, after a time, be decomposed, and their bones and antlers be entombed in 
