Essay on the Theory of the Earth

by baron Georges Cuvier

“I have made diligent but fruitless search for an account of the particular time when any of these remains were first discovered. As they generally occur in marl, it is most likely that they did not begin to attract attention until the advanced state of agriculture had created an increased demand for that mineral as a manure. We can very easily imagine the astonishment which the appearance of horns so large, and of such strange form, must have excited in the minds of those who discovered them for the first time, and how readily they obtained a place in the hall of some adjoining mansion, where they were deposited as an ornament of great curiosity, from the contrast which they formed with the horns of the species of deer known at present. In this way we may account for the preservation of so many specimens as are found in the possession of the gentry in different parts of this country.

“Very lately an entire skeleton of the Irish Elk was dug up in that country. The following statement of the circumstances under which the bones were found, with their geological position, was laid before the Dublin Society, in a letter from Archdean Maunsell to the Right Hon. George Knox.

“Middleton Lodge, March 8. 1825.

“MY DEAR SIR,

“I deferred replying to your letter of the 1st, as it was my intention to proceed to Limerick in a few days, and I was anxious to look over some notes I had taken, and which I left there, of the circumstances connected with the discovery of the fossil remains which the Royal Dublin Society have received. As I have, however, been obliged to postpone my departure for several days, I can no longer defer offering my best thanks for the kind manner in which you have received the conjectures which I formed upon a subject to which my attention was directed, by having fortunately been present before the bones were disturbed from the situation in which they had lain during a period which I apprehend it would not be easy to define. I am sensible that any consideration which may have been attached to my observations should be attributed to the interest which the subject itself is calculated to excite, rather than to any ability of mine to do it justice. The opinion which I took the liberty of communicating to you was formed after some consideration, and although I had not the most remote idea of its being worthy of any attention, I can have no objection to your making any use of it which you may conceive expedient. There is, I conceive, much interesting material for speculation, resulting from the discovery of these fossil remains, and the first that naturally occurs is the manner in which the animals were destroyed, and the bones so singularly preserved. I stated, in the hasty sketch which I gave you of my theory upon this point, that I apprehended they must have been destroyed by some overwhelming deluge, that they were probably drowned upon the hills where they had taken refuge, as the waters rose, and that, as they subsided, they were drawn from thence into the valley in which they were found; that the agitation of the waters had occasioned such a dispersion of the bones, when the ligaments dissolved, as would account for their having been scattered in the way in which they were found, and that the deposite of shell marl, with which I supposed the water to have been turbid, had so completely protected them from atmospheric influence as to prevent their subsequent decomposition. To enable you to form some estimate of the reasonableness of this supposition, it is necessary that I should endeavour to explain the situation, &c. of the valley and the adjoining hills. The valley in which the remains were found contains about twenty plantation acres, and the soil consists of a stratum of peat about a foot thick, immediately under this a stratum of shell-marl, varying from 1½ to 2½ feet in thickness; in this many of the shells retain their original colour and figure, and are not marine; under the marl there is a bed of light blue clay; through this one of my workmen drove an iron rod, in several places, twelve feet deep, without meeting opposition. Most of the bones and heads, eight in number, were found in the marl; many of them, however, appeared to rest on the clay, and to be merely covered by the marl. The remains were disposed in such a manner as to prevent the possibility of ascertaining the exact component parts of each skeleton; in some places portions were found removed many yards from others, and in no instance were two bones found lying close to each other. Their position also was singular; in one place two heads were found, with the antlers entwined in each other, and immediately under them a large blade-bone; in another, a very large head was discovered, and although a most diligent search was made, no part of the skeleton found; within some hundred yards, in another, the jaw-bones were found, and not the head. The conclusion which, I conceive, may fairly be deduced from such a position of the various parts of the animals is, that there must have been some powerful agent employed in dispersing them after their death; and as I consider it impossible that their own gravity could have been sufficient to sink them through the various strata, I conceive these must have originated subsequently to the dispersion of the bones. I also think, that, if they had been exposed for any time to atmospheric influence, they never could have been preserved in their present extraordinary perfection.

“The hills immediately adjoining this valley are composed of limestone, with a covering of rich mould of various degrees of thickness. One of them, whose base is about thirty acres, rises directly from the edge of the valley, with sides very precipitous, and in one place perfectly perpendicular, of naked limestone. In every part of this hill the superficies comprises as much stone as mould; on the side nearly opposite, the hill is equally high, but the sides not so steep, and the covering of mould thicker; on the other sides the ground only rises in some degree (twenty or thirty feet perhaps), and consists of a thin mould, and immediately under a very hard limestone gravel. Indeed, except where limestone forms the substratum, this is the character of all the soil in the vicinity except the Corkasses, which are evidently alluvial. I am fully aware, that, assuming the destruction of the animals to have been occasioned by a flood, they would naturally have retreated from the water to the hills, and that, as they probably met their fate there, their remains should have been discovered on the summit of the hills, and not in the valley, particularly as one of them is perfectly flat on the top, which contains six or seven acres. I apprehend that the remains of many of them were deposited on the tops of the hills; but as they have now only a slight covering of mould, not sufficient to cover a small dog, they were formerly perfectly bare; and as they were thus devoid of the means of protecting the remains from the atmosphere, whatever was left there soon became decomposed, and resolved into portions of the mould, which is now to be found on the hills. This remark I conceive also to be applicable to the soil with the substratum of limestone gravel, which affords quite as little material for preserving the bones as the hills do.

“It is material that I should observe, that of eight heads which we found, none were without antlers; the variety in character also was such as to induce me to imagine, that possibly the females were not devoid of these appendages. Unfortunately, however, from the difficulty of raising them, being saturated with water, and as soft as wet brown paper, only three were at all perfect.

“Having now disposed of these antediluvians, a question naturally arises, how it happens that the fossil remains of no other animals were found, when the same fate probably overwhelmed every existing creature? Could deer have been the only living beings at that period? Was Ireland part of a great continent when this catastrophe occurred, and were these unfortunates the first emigrants to our Isle from that great centre from whence the globe was supplied with occupants, and did they perish before other animals less influenced by enterprise, and less endowed with physical strength, could have followed their example? These problems I confess myself unable to solve, and shall not presume to obtrude my many reveries upon this and other points, which have originated in the discovery of a few bones, upon those who I know are so much better competent to form a sound opinion. I shall, I hope, be able to send the antlers, which are very fine, on the 15th of this month.

“If you have a desire to make any use of this letter, I can only say I have no objection. I remain, dear Sir, with feelings of great respect,

“Yours most truly,