276 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
Mr. Wilde made the following communication— 
ON THE -ANCIENT AND MODERN RACES OF OXEN IN IRELAND. 
I feel quite certain that any subject connected, no matter how re¬ 
motely, with the great cattle interest of Ireland—a question always of 
the highest social concern, and never more so than at the present 
moment—will he listened to with patience by an assembly so consti¬ 
tuted as the Royal Irish Academy. Neither the geologist nor paleon¬ 
tologist have sufficiently explored the earth’s surface in this country to 
enable me to state, from any printed documents to' which I have had 
access, the amount, nature, and distribution of the ancient Fauna of 
Ireland; but although the book of nature has not been investigated to 
the extent to which, no doubt, it is capable, our historic records—de¬ 
cidedly the oldest and, I think I may add, the most authentic in any 
living language in Europe—afford ample materials for drawing up some 
account of the ancient animals of this country. It has been stated by 
Professor Owen, chiefly upon the authority of the Earl of Enniskillen, 
that the remains of bovine animals have been found in the sub-turbary 
shell-marl in various localities in Ireland, and there is a belief current 
among naturalists that such remains have been found associated with 
those of Cervus megaceros Hibernicus —our great fossil elk. 
It is quite possible that the remains of oxen have been found in clay 
formations and fresh-water drifts in Ireland ; but I have been so long 
accustomed, in investigating another branch of science, to receive with 
caution the accounts of collectors, that I should like to have something 
more explicit and topographical written upon the subject than that of— 
“ various localities.” There is, however, every reason to believe that 
the ox existed contemporaneously with the first inhabitation of the 
country, and from thence to the present day it has largely contributed 
to the wealth of this kindom. In the very earliest times man must have 
been to a large extent a flesh and a fish-eating animal; and in Ireland 
the primitive inhabitants not only fed upon the flesh of oxen, but were 
clothed in their skins, formed weapons (pins and fasteners) out of their 
bones, used their sinews and intestines for strings, and employed diffe¬ 
rent parts of these animals in ministering to clothing and decorative arts. 
And now, after a lapse of two thousand years at least, we find the 
Irishman, notwithstanding the fearful losses of the famine period—one 
of the most direful calamities that ever befell a people—-still able to 
elevate his country in the social scale, to increase his own personal 
wealth, and to assist in supporting the sister kingdom—by his cattle. 
Erom the earliest period to which our Annals refer we find notices 
of horned cattle. Thus, we read in the Book of Lecan, that in the 
reign of Eindoll, long anterior to the Christian era, every calf born at 
a particular period had a white spot on its forehead. A multitude of 
places are called after cattle—such as Inis Bofin, the island of the white 
cow; Lough Bofin, the lake of the white cow; Drum-shanbo, the ridge of 
