Traces of the elder faiths of Ireland : a folklore sketch; a handbook of Irish pre-Christian traditions / by W.G. Wood-Martin.

  • Wood-Martin, W. G. (William Gregory), 1847-1917.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Traces of the elder faiths of Ireland : a folklore sketch; a handbook of Irish pre-Christian traditions / by W.G. Wood-Martin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    38/440 (page 12)
    tiger ; the Great Irish Deer, or Megaceros, reindeer, urns, bison, woolly-haired rhinoceros,* inannnoth, wild-horse, wolf, glutton, large fox, and beaver. Comparatively few of the foregoing have been identified as present in Ireland; yet even with a restricted number the nocturnal sounds would, in comparison with those now heard, be strange and startling. We should have the bellowing of the hulls and of the stags, the growling of bears, the neighing of wild horses, and the howling of wolves. There is a vast difference between the Mammalian fauna of tlie Paheolithic or Older Stone Age and that of the Neo- lithic or Polished-stone Period ; the gap between the two eras represents an immense period of time during which the fauna of the country were undergoing transformation by the migration of some forms and the extinction of others, for the continued existence of all animal and vegetable life is an individual struggle. All are exposed to the attacks of enemies, and, except under special conditions none hut the strong and healthy arrive at maturity and continue to propagate their species. Examination of deposits filling deep basins of ancient lakes affords a most reliable record of climatic changes from the close of the first great Ice Age to the comparatively modern period when these silted-up hollows were clothed with dense forests, buried in their turn under a vast accumulation of peat. The Bog of Ballyhetagh, Co. Dublin, which covers the site of two ancient lake-beds, may be taken as a typical example. Its historian, Mr. W. Williams, is a good authority on the subject, as he spent ten weeks in making scientific excavations in the locality. Ballyhetagh Bog, nine miles from Dublin, lies in a small valley 800 feet above sea level. Its elevation precluded the basin from receiving the drainage of any extensive sweep of country; hence the clays with which this hollow is filled could not have been transported from a distance, hut were swept into it from the surrounding hills. The imderlying stratum of Boulder Clay, of unknown thick- ness, deposited in the great Ice Age, rests on the granite. Next to it is a fine reconstructed Boulder Clay without stones. The next deposit, yellowish-grey in colour, almost entirely composed of vegetable matter, has been subjected to great pressure. The succeeding layer has all the appearance of lake sediment, and hears witness to a time during which the gigantic deer, the Irish Big-horn or Megaceros, appeared, leaving its skeletons in this deposit. These animals nio,y have been drowned after having mired and stuck fast in the thick tenacious re-arranged Boulder Clay. The next deposit consists of dchrin from the hills brought down by frost and rain, filling the lake beds, and prepar- ing the surface for the growth of peat of no great thickness, its