Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 4 (1846).djvu/15

Rh an opinion of my own. Still the existence of the remains of this extraordinary quadruped beyond the limits of Ireland is thoroughly established ; and from the evidence afforded by the for- mations in which they have been found, Professor Owen pro- nounces the giant deer to have been synchronous with the " Mam- moth, rhinoceros, and other extinct Mammalia of the period of the formation of the newest tertiary freshwater fossiliferous strata," and he altogether repudiates the idea of its having been co-ex- istent with man. Now we have only to refer to two of its con- geners, the rein-deer and red deer, — both unquestionably fossil, — and I select them from a multitude of examples, to show that it is quite possible, indeed quite natural and probable, that the giant deer should have lived on until the human era commenced ; aye, might still exist, were it not for the intervention of man himself! The absence of historical records, so long before the invention of printing, although so strenuously urged, would really amount to nothing : the same argument might be employed to show that the round towers of Ireland were equally pre-adamite with her deer : for neither Caesar nor Tacitus throw any light on the questio vexata of their date and use: but we are not absolutely without records, for "Pepper in his 'History of Ireland' expressly states that the ancient Irish used to hunt a very large black deer, the milk of which they used, as we do that of the cow ; the flesh of which served them for food and the skin for clothing."* And again, "Sir William Betham found some bronze or brass tablets, the inscription on which attested that the ancient Irish fed upon the flesh and milk of a great black deer."t

The position in which the remains of this animal are found, appear to me to be mistaken by Professor Owen : he takes great pains to show that in Ireland he " met with no person who had seen them in the peat itself. In every case," says the Professor, " where more definite information was afforded by an eye-witness of their discovery, it appeared that the antlers and bones had been dug

'Gigantic Irish Deer,' by H.D. Richardson, p. 25.

f Id.