crossing the lake, or when feeding along the margin, or on being driven there by wolves—it is clear that entire herds were destroyed at the same time. The above is only one of many such instances. Amongst the heads found at Killegar in 1847 were two with interlocked antlers. Another and similar instance is recorded from a bog near Limerick,[1] so that it would seem that many deer lost their lives in mortal encounter along the sides of lakes.
The objection to this deer being called an Elk is the obvious dissimilarity in the form of the antler in the true Elk and so-called Irish Elk. The former had neither brow nor bez antler[2]; for a long time they were confounded, although, when the difference is pointed out, a glance is sufficient to distinguish them. The weight of the heaviest skull and horns of the Elk seldom exceeds 55 ℔s., and the extreme breadth across the latter is about 70 inches; whereas many dried specimens of its Irish congener weigh upwards of 90 ℔s., and give a horizontal measurement of antlers of as much as 120 inches. The great ugly skull and short neck of the Elk, allowing the antlers to be easily thrown back on the withers, contrast with the small handsome head and long serpentine but powerful neck of the Great-horned Deer. The delicately formed limbs of the latter are unlike the large-boned extremities of the former; in fact, the entire aspect of the latter shows a rare combination of great strength and agility, not equalled in any living species of the family. Although no remains of this deer have been found in conjunction with those of other wild denizens of Ireland, excepting the Reindeer, the probability is that, like the latter, it was a contemporary of the Bear, Horse, and Mammoth. Its remains have turned up in about twelve different English caverns, and in various river deposits, associated in several instances with bones of the large Carnivora and other extinct quadrupeds, showing that it had a place in the ancient British fauna at an early period. Nowhere, however, does it seem to have been so plentiful as in Ireland. This has been accounted for, as before observed, by the paucity of carnivorous quadrupeds, and of
- ↑ Oldham, Journal Geological Society of Ireland, vol. iii., p. 252.
- ↑ Several attempts at imposition have been practised in Ireland by importing horns of the Moose, and painting them red to give a semblance of antiquity. The head of the male Gigantic Deer is in great request among dealers, and in a recent instance as much as £25 was given for a skull and horns of by no means a large individual.—A.L.A.
