Notice of the discovery of remains of the elk (Cervus alces, Linn., Alces malchis, Gray) in Berwickshire : with notes of its occurrence in the British islands, more particularly in Scotland : also notes of the remains of the Irish elk (Megaceros Hibernicus) found in Scotland / by John Alexander Smith.

Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notice of the discovery of remains of the elk (Cervus alces, Linn., Alces malchis, Gray) in Berwickshire : with notes of its occurrence in the British islands, more particularly in Scotland : also notes of the remains of the Irish elk (Megaceros Hibernicus) found in Scotland / by John Alexander Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    extremity of the corresponding snag of the other horn. The greatest breadth of the right or largest horn is 1 foot, measuring from the hroken points of the first palmated and projecting snag to the back part of the tliird portion, which projects oxitwards and backwards. I may state that I extracted from the brain cavity of the skull, througlx the foramen magnum of the occipital bone, a mass of hardened peat, Avhich had filled the entire cavity. I am thus enabled to corroborate the ' statement of Mr Hogarth, that the skull was found in the peat, and not in the shell marl of the bog. Some time ago I met Dr David Page, our well-known geologist, and told him of the elk's head I had got at Whitrig Bog. He mentioned that he had a letter from ]\Ir Charles Lapworth of Galashiels, informing him of the discovery of a large deer's skull in Whitrig Bog, and askiug for informa- tion as to the species. He had little doubt it was the same skull I had got. Mr Lapworth afterwards wrote to me that, along with his friend Mr WUson of the Border Advertiser, he learned of the deer's head being found, had gone to see it, and examined the place where it was dis- covered. Mr Wilson thought of drawing up a note of its discovery for his newspaper, but this intention was never carried into effect. They were geologists rather than zoologists, and were engaged at the time in working at the geology of their district, following it out very successfully across a great part of the south of Scotland. The Elk (Cervus alces), of America.—The elk of the old world, and the elki or moose-deer, the Muswti of the Cree Indians of the new world, are believed by naturalists to be the same species of animal. Sir John Kichardson, in his Zoology of H. M. S. Herald, 4to, London, 1854, gives details of the skeleton of a recent moose-deer, in illustration of the fossil remains of the elk found along with the bones of the Elephas pnmigenius, Cervus taraiidus, &c., in the bone deposit in the frozen cliffs of Eschscholtz Bay, near Behring's Strait, in Arctic North America. The skull closely corresponds with the one I have described ; some dimensions of my specimen, however, seem rather larger than that described by Sir John. His descriptions give the distinctive characters between the elk * Unfortunately in America tlie name elk is given also to the Cervus canadejisis, so that there, the moose deer, is the necessary and distinctive appellation.