CUSTOM-HOUSE DOCKS, DUBLIN. These stupendous works were erected under the superintendence of Mr. Rennie, and Mr. Aird. The basin is 320 feet in length, by 250 in breadth, and has been lately completed at the expense of 45,000l. The dock, is 650 feet in length by 300 in breadth, and will cost 35,000l. The docks are surrounded by stores on three sides. The tobacco stores have been finished on the south side at the expense of 70,000l. They are 500 feet long by 160 feet wide. The roof is of cast iron, and the building finished in the most permanent manner. The estimate for completing the whole of the work was 120,0007.

BAY OF DUBLIN

The admirers of beautiful scenery will here find much to indulge in; for excepting the Bay of Naples, there is probably no prospect of the kind to compare as a rival to the Bay of Dublin. The Hill of Howth, forming its northern extremity, is of considerable magnitude, and rising as it does from the flat shore, which connects it with the land, renders it more conspicuous. All the way from Dublin to Howth, a distance of six miles, is very beautiful, and the whole Peninsula is crowded with magnificent villas and ornamented cottages. The breadth of the Bay does not exceed four miles, contracting till it terminates in the river Liffey. The Wicklow shore has quite a different character, being as bold as the other is tame; the mountains here rise to a considerable height,

and terminate in a great diversity of summit, which with the conical hills in advance from their main body, produce a singularly beauti ful effect. As the whole is cultivated and crowded down to the water's edge with cabins, most of which are white-washed, the interest of the scene is greatly promoted by the general gaiety and cheerfulness thus exhibited.

The city of Dublin occupies the entire extremity or bottom of the bay. So numerous and varied are the natural productions and works of art which are assembled in this small compass, that the attention becomes distracted. There is in this view one very agreeable peculiarity; every feature of the landscape is distinctly seen; one character pervades the whole, and no space is left for fancy to fill up, all is complete and beautiful; busy and alive; while the general bustle of commercial business pronounces it, not less the residence of opulence, than the happy seat where industry and productive labour love to dwell.

Prepared as the spectator may be from every account he has received of this celebrated spot, it will not only answer but exceed his expectations. He may pass the whole day in contemplating the different parts of this glorious landscape, where every object successfully continues to promote a general harmony, and produce one grand exquisite effect.

GEOLOGICAL WONDERS.

FOSSIL IRISH ELK.

THIS gigantic animal was once doubtless an inhabitant of Ireland, but, except the horns and bones found in bogs in various parts of the kingdom, nothing now remains to demonstrate its existence. It has neither been perfectly classified, nor scarcely even treated of by any writer, the natural history of Ireland having been almost totally neglected.

Naturalists are not agreed to what precise class the animal, whose horns are dug up in Ireland, belongs. The conclusion to be drawn from the majority of opinions is, that they must have been those of the Moose-Deer, not the elk. The horns are of different lengths, varying, in the chord of the antlers, from twelve to fourteen feet, and the sum of the lengths of the antlers and os frontis, from fifteen to eighteen. Such an enormous weight must have required an animal of extraordinary strength and size to support it; and from this, as well as from the skeleton also dug up, it has been concluded, that the stately creature, who once bore such stupendous antlers on its head, must have been upwards of twelve feet high. The horns found, branch very differently from those of the elk ; they are palmated at the upper extremity, and

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possess projections both on the inferior and superior processes. The extinction of this species of animal cannot, probably, be satisfactorily explained; but the following account may, perhaps, lead the reader to happier explanations of the circumstance:-In Lapland, where this animal, or certainly one approaching indefinitely near to this species, exists, a murrain, or pestilential disorder, frequently destroys the whole race in a season; yet from the connexion or continuity of land, the loss is supplied by a body of migrators from a neighbouring country; supposing, therefore, a pestilence to have raged in this island, so as to cut off the remaining part of a species, already thinned by the sport of the huntsman, the discontinuity of land would prevent the possibility of a fresh supply, and thus the species would become extinct in this country for ever, and its existence ascertained, in after ages, only by the fossil horns, which may be called the medals of creation.

This conjecture is somewhat strengthened by the circumstance of several heads and antlers being discovered in the same spot, particularly those found in Mr. Osborne's orchard, at Dardistown, in the county of Meath, which were all close together, and, like all others, found deposited in a bed of marl.

A very large pair of antlers, found in the county of Clare, by Mr. Vandeleur, was presented by his Grace the Duke of Ormond to King Charles II., and suspended in the horngallery at Hampton Court. Antlers of the same description were preserved in Portumna Castle, the seat of Earl Clanrickard; at Turvey,

the seat of Lord Trimlestown; at Stack Allen, the seat of Lord Boyne, in the county of Meath; and at other places.

A specimen of Elks' horns may be seen in the British Museum.

We are informed by Dr. Molyneux, that an enormous pair of horns which were dug up in Ireland, measured as follows:

From the extreme tip of each horn

From the tip of the right. horn to its root
From the tip of one of the inner branches to the
tip of the opposite branch

The length of one of the palms, within the
branches

The breadth of the same palin, within the branches

The length of the right brow antler

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This species of elk is now entirely extinct, though found in a fossil state in Ireland, Isle of Man, England, Germany and France, but most frequently in Ireland. The most perfect specimen of the skeleton hitherto met with, is that which was found in the Isle of Man, and presented by the Duke of Athol, to the Museum of the College of Edinburgh, where it is now to be seen. It is six feet high, nine feet long, and in height, to the tip of the right horn, nine feet seven and a half inches.

It was found, imbedded in a loose shell-marl, in which were numerous imbedded branches and roots. Over the marl was a bed of sand, above the sand, a bed of peat, principally composed of small branches and rotten leaves, and over the peat the common soil of the country..