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and fleshy muzzle of the elk. The space required by this part reduces 
the bony parts, and extraordinarily enlarges and elongates the bony 
openings of the nostrils, and necessarily shortens the proper bones of 
the nose ; but nothing of this kind is discoverable in the fossil skull. 
The fossil head differs also from that of the elk in the proportion be- 
tween the length and the width : in the former the width bearing a 
proportion to the length, as one to two ; and, inthe latter, as one to three. 
It appears, that the magnitude of the fossil head does not by anymeans 
keep pace with the enormous size of the horns ; the largest fossil head 
not exceeding two feet, which is shorter than that of the common elk. 
To calculate the size of the body from that of the head, seems hardly 
admissible ; and not having yet obtained any authentic account of the 
discovery of any of the bones of the trunk, or of the limbs of this animal, 
there exists no sufficient basis for conjecture on this point. 
The resemblance which has been supposed to exist between this fossil 
and the moose-deer, or elk of America, M. Cuvier contends is ima- 
ginary ; observing, that there does not appear to be any real specific 
difference between the European and the American elk. Every thing, 
therefore, he observes, agrees in authorizing us to consider the fossil 
elk of Ireland as an animal belonging to a species, which, as will be 
shown to be the case with several others, is now become extinct. 
The frequency with which these remains are found in Ireland is a 
circumstance not very easily explained, when it is also considered 
that the discovery of any of these remains in any other part of the globe 
is a very rare occurrence. A fragment of a horn, apparently of this 
species, has been found on the Rhine, near to Worms : Ecrits de la 
Societe des Na'uralisles de Berlin, p. 388. In this specimen, the 
brow-antler is flattened. The upper part of a skull, with two beams, 
resembling in their form and proportions those of the Irish elk, have 
been found in the canal of Ourcq, near to Sevrau, in the forest of 
Bondi, in the neighbourhood of that spot where we have already seen 
the remains of elephants were discovered. 
VOL. III. 
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