118 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
did these bones come to the place where they were found?” 
In attempting to answer this, we must enter briefly into 
the far-past history of the Carse, since the popular idea 
that these remains have been brought down by the river 
from some of the Highland forests, and deposited in the 
place where they were found at a time when the Carse 
lands were under water, is, though perhaps possible, yet by 
no means probable. 
The past history of the Carse may be learnt from 
the deposits which now fill the valley. What these 
are, and the details of them, may be found in Pro¬ 
fessor James Geikie’s Prehistoric Europe, and I need 
not enter into a description of them. But I should like 
to try to bring before you some idea of what a spectator 
who had taken his stand upon some hill commanding a 
good view of the Carse would have seen at various periods. 
1 need hardly remark that thousands of years would come 
and go while the various scenes were being enacted, and 
that of course before he took up his position the hills had 
come into existence. In fact, we will go no further back 
than the Glacial Period. 
Scene first—A snow-white plain, stretching away in 
one dead unbroken level as far as the eye can see. Un¬ 
broken silence reigning over all. This would be the 
appearance that the Carse would have had, could any¬ 
one have seen it, at the height of the “Great Ice 
Age.” Though apparently a dead level, the icy plain 
would really have sloped very gently towards the sea, or 
rather to the place where the sea would have been had it 
not been pushed out of sight by the ice. Could the thick 
mass of ice have been lifted, below it would have been 
found the clay, resulting from the grinding down of the 
rocks, which we now call “till” or boulder clay. 
Scene second—A tumultuous sea, whose waters dash 
high up on the slopes of the Carse hills. The Grampians, 
laden with perpetual snow, gleaming white in the dis- 
ance. The Tay and Earn swollen “from bank to brae,” 
and carrying into the sea masses of ice, stones, gravel, 
sand, and finer sediment. Very little life on the land, 
but the estuary inhabited by many Arctic animals. 
Scene third—A verdant forest covering all the land. 
Through the pines, oaks, and birches that cover the 
hills, genial breezes blow. Here and there a view of 
the Tay can be got, as it flows gently, between its 
alder and willow-clad banks, to the now far-distant 
sea. Through the glades of the woodland wander herds 
of red deer and wild oxen, feeding on the luxuriant 
herbage. Suddenly, they speed away, leaving behind 
them one of their number transfixed by a flint-headed arrow. 
Some men, clad in scanty garments of skins, appear and 
drag the carcase to their rudely-shaped canoe. 
Scene fourth—A wild waste of waters covering all the 
low ground. The hills still covered with woods, and 
glaciers again visible in the Highland valleys. From these 
pour down the swollen rivers, leaving much fine debris 
with which they cover up the drowned forest of the valley. 
Scene fifth—A wide verdant valley. Human habita¬ 
tions embowered in blooming orchards. Steamers pas¬ 
sing up and down the river, which, near the sea, is 
spanned by a great bridge. A man, bearing a hammer 
and a note-book, moves slowly over the ground. 
These, then, might have been some of the scenes that 
our imagined spectator would have seen in the long 
course of ages. It may be said, however, that this does 
not prove that the red deer was once an inhabitant of the 
Carse, and that the occurrence of the antlers now before 
us is not sufficient evidence. If these had been the only 
remains that had been found this objection might have 
been sustained, but such is not the case. The peat bed, 
which is evidence of the old forest, extends over all the 
Carse from Perth to Dundee, buried under from 10 to 40 
feet of clay, and in various parts of it antlers and other 
remains of red deer have been found in sinking wells and 
making drains. Could more of the peat be uncovered and 
examined, it would doubtless be found that remains of red 
deer were very abundant. I think, therefore, we are 
quite justified in assuming that this animal was once a 
common inhabitant of the Carse. I may mention that in 
many other parts of Lowland Scotland, where the red deer 
does not now exist, its remains have been found, as well 
as in the fen-land and other parts of England. 
It remains now to say a word or two about the antlers 
themselves. They are not very different from the antlers 
of park-fed deer of the present day, but are larger than 
those of hi'll deer. A hill deer in Scotland has rarely 
as many as 12 regular points to its antlers, but for¬ 
merly the average was higher—the degeneracy probably 
resulting from in-breeding. In these antlers, judg¬ 
ing from the one that is most perfect, there seems to 
have been 16 or 18 points. You will notice that one 
antler is somewhat differently shaped from the other, 
the second and third tines not having exactly the 
same position in each—a circumstance not unusual in red 
deer antlers. The length of the right antler (which is the 
most perfect), measured on the outside curve, is 33 inches. 
The circumference, just above the first or brow tine, is 
nearly 6 inches. The second or bez tine is placed close to 
the first; the third (sometimes called the royal) tine i 
