884 
Scientific Intelligence.— Zoology. 
entire skeleton preserved for you, but I send you herewith the 
entire head, which have the goodness to lodge in the Royal 
Museum of the University of Edinburgh *. It is the first in- 
stance of any of the&e formidable inhabitants of the polar re- 
gions having been met with on our coasts. The animal was 
evidently in a very lean state, and his hide was in many places 
bored with small shot; but you will have some guess of his enor- 
mous size, when I tell you, that the hide, which had been dried 
and shrunk up a good deal before I saw it, measured 1 5 feet in 
length, and 13 feet in breadth, and was rather more than 1 inch 
thick.” — Letter from Robert S earth, Esq. of Kirkwall 
25. Irish Elk. — Cervus giganteus of Blumenbach. — We have 
just received from the author, Mr Hart, member of the Royal 
College of Surgeons of Ireland, a copy of a printed memoir, en- 
titled, A Description of the Skeleton of the Fossil Deer of 
Ireland, Cervus megaceros ; drawn up at the instance of the 
Committee of Natural Philosophy of the Royal Dublin Society. 
Dublin, 1825.” The specimen described by Mr Hart is nearly 
complete ; and, from the annexed lithographic drawing, must be 
truly magnificent. It is apparently more perfect than the splen- 
did skeleton in the Royal Museum of the University of Edin- 
burgh. Naturalists, in general, have considered it as different 
from any of the known living or fossil species ; and Professor 
Blumenbach, many years ago, mentioned it particularly under 
the name Cervus giganteus , — -a name, by-the-by, which, in our 
opinion, renders unnecessary those lately proposed. The anato- 
mical details given by Mr Hart, in his interesting memoir, are 
curious ; and the opinion advanced by him, that the female gi- 
gantic deer also had horns, as is the case with the rein-deer, oc- 
curred to us while examining the specimen in the College Mu- 
seum. The occurrence of these fossil remains in shell-marl, 
shews that this magnificent deer must have lived at a compara- 
tively late period, in those countries where its bones are at pre- 
sent found ; and the fact mentioned by Mr Hart, of his having 
seen a rib of this animal, which appeared to have been pierced 
by an arrow, goes to shew that it was a living inhabitant of 
Great Britain at the same time with man. 
* This interesting specimen, which the Royal Museum owes to Mr Scarth’s zeal 
and activity, has reached the College in safety. — Edit. 
