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III.—On the Occurrence of Megaceros Hibernicus, Owen, in the Ancient Lacustrine Deposits of Ireland; with Remarks on the Probable Age of these Beds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

W. Williams
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Extract

The old lacustrine deposits of Ireland do not seem to have attracted so much attention from geologists as they deserve. By the old lacustrine deposits, we understand the dried-up lakes at present occupied by peat-bogs, with their underlying beds of marl and clays. During the past century it was known that in these bogs, or in the marl-beds beneath them, were found antlers and bones of a gigantic extinct deer, which Professor Owen named Megaceros Hibernicus, and now popularly known as the “Irish Elk,”1 not that it was exclusively confined to Ireland, its remains having been found in England and Scotland, also in France and Germany, and it is even reported to occur in caves as far east as the Altai Mountains in Asia.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 8 , Issue 8 , August 1881 , pp. 354 - 363
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1881

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References

page 354 note 1 The term “Elk” is calculated to mislead, as it is not an Alces or Elk at all, tut a true Cervus. “Gigantic Irish Deer” would be the more correct name for it.

page 358 note 1 An iron rod, ten feet in length, pressed through this clay found no bottom rock.

page 363 note 1 In a letter to the writer from Dr. James Geikie, F.E.S., F.G.S., of the Geological Survey of Scotland (author of a work entitled “The Great Ice Age,” etc., one of our highest authorities on glacial questions), this eminent geologist writes as follows:—“Perth, 1st January, 1880, …. As I told you in former letters, I was not prepared to believe that your marls and peat with Megaceros could be older than the last cold phase of the Ice-age. I thought then, and think still, that they are all Post-Glacial—in the sense of being later than the last big ice-sheet. But I think you are right in supposing that cold conditions of climate succeeded to the period when the Megaceros lived in Ireland.”…. “You will see from my paper that your Megaceros comes into the ‘Age of Forests,’ and that the beds immediately overlying the peat will most likely be of the same age as our coarse clays, with Greenland whale, and the latest local, or valley-glaciers—a climate probably approaching to that of Northern Norway.” The writer believes the Megaceros lived before the forest-period in Ireland, just as it existed previous to the growth of the Peat-bogs.