In a Google search on Irish Elk, yours truly now comes in first, having passed the long-entrenched palaeontologists at Berkeley.

Mrs. P had reported Patum Peperium at No. 4 on Google for spats retailer, but the site is now No. 1 with a bullet.

Meantime, Mr. P is collecting Chestertonian moments.

UPDATE, 1/7/04

Google is a fickle mistress: The Berkeley palaeontologists have retained the lead on Irish elk, but add quote marks and, voila.

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Megaceros Hibernicus figures into this poem by James Brunton Stephens on love amid the natural-history exhibits:

Through the Museum-windows played
The light on fossil, cast, and chart;
And she was there, my Gwendoline,
The mammal of my heart.

She leaned against the Glyptodon,
The monster of the sculptured tooth;
She looked a fossil specimen
Herself, to tell the truth.

She leaned against the Glyptodon;
She fixed her glasses on her nose;
One Pallas-foot drawn back displayed
The azure of her hose.

Few virtues had she of her own--
She borrowed them from time and space;
Her age was eocene, although
Post-tertiary her place.

The Irish Elk that near us stood,
(Megaceros Hibernicus),
Scarce dwarfed her; while I bowed beneath
Her stately overplus…

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Naturalist and writer Richard Ellis of the American Museum of Natural History, interviewed by the NYT, on the prospects of a real-life Jurassic Park:

The technology of today is not advanced enough to recreate a dinosaur from a drop of blood preserved in amber, but it might really be possible to recreate a Tasmanian tiger. If they succeeded, I'd certainly want to see it. I'd love to see a recreated Irish elk. I'd be first in line for that.

(Via the eagle-eyed Steve M.)

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Most gratefully received this Christmas, a book on the Agassiz Museum, Rarest of the Rare.

Now definitely on the reading list: Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads and Dinosaurs in the Attic.