Page:On the Ancient and Modern Races of Oxen in Ireland (IA jstor-20489834).pdf/1

64 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 remotely, 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 be listened to with patience by an assembly so constituted as the Royal Irish Academy. Neither the geologist nor palaeontologist 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—decidedly 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 different 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.

From 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