Page images
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][graphic][merged small]

To treat first of the earliest historic species which has died out, no doubt can exist that the Brown Bear inhabited Britain in times of which history takes cognisance, the few written records which have come down to us of its former existence here being supplemented by the best of all evidence, the discovery of its remains. These have been found in the most recent formations throughout England, which can scarcely be regarded as fossil, and, if not abso

lutely identical with those of the Bear which still exists in many parts of the European continent at all events indicate only a variety.*

In Britain, says Professor Boyd Dawkins, the Bear survived those changes which exterminated the characteristic post-glacial mammalia, and is found in the prehistoric deposits both in Great Britain and Ireland, and is of considerable interest, because it is the largest of the post-glacial carnivores which can be brought into relation with our history. A nearly perfect skull from the marl below the peat in Manea Fen, Cambridgeshire, and now in the Woodwardian Museum, Cambridge, has been described and figured by Professor Owen, who has also described portions of another skull from the same locality. In 1868 Dr. Hicks found remains of the Brown Bear in peat at St. Bride's Bay; and numerous bones and teeth of this animal have been discovered at various times in Kent's Cavern, Devonshire.

The exploration of the Victoria Cave, near Settle, revealed the fact that the Brown Bear afforded food to the Neolithic dwellers in the cave, who have left the relics of their feasts and a few rude implements at the lowest horizon; the broken bones and jaws of this animal lying mixed up with the remains of the Red-deer, Horse, and Celtic Shorthorn.t

Nor are we without direct testimony that the Bear was killed by the hand of man during the Roman occupation of Britain. In the collection of

*Owen, "British Fossil Mammals," p. 78.

+ Boyd Dawkins, Pop. Sci. Review, 1861, p. 247.

bones from the "refuse heaps" round Colchester made by Dr. Bree, the remains of this animal were found along with those of the Badger, Wolf, Celtic Shorthorn, and Goat. Professor Boyd Dawkins has also met with it in a similar "refuse heap" at Richmond, in Yorkshire, which is most probably of Roman origin.

[graphic]

CRANIUM OF BROWN BEAR, DUMFRIESSHIRE.

Dr. J. A. Smith has described and figured* the skull of a large Bear which was found with a rib of the same animal in a semi-fossil condition at Shaws, in Dumfriesshire, in peat moss lying on marl, among the most recent of all our formations, associated moreover with the Red-deer, Roe-buck, Urus, and Reindeer; the skull being that of a large adult animal of great size and strength.† Strange to say, these are the only remains of the Bear which have yet been discovered in Scotland.

As regards Ireland, some doubt seems to exist in the minds of paleontologists whether any of the ursine remains discovered there are referable to

* "Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scotland," vol. xiii. p. 360 (1879).

For permission to copy the figure of this skull the author is indebted to Dr. J. A. Smith and the Society above referred to.

Ursus arctos.* Dr. Leith Adams, writing on 'Recent and Extinct Irish Mammals' ("Proc. Roy. Dublin Soc.," 1878), has very fully described several skulls and other portions of ursine skeletons exhumed in Leitrim, Longford, Westmeath, King's County, Kildare, Waterford, and Limerick, and after comparing them with similar bones of Ursus spelæus, U. fossilis, U. ferox, U. arctos, and U. maritimus, has arrived at the following conclusion:

"A study of the osteological characters of these ursine remains which represent all the authenticated instances of discoveries hitherto recorded from Ireland, appears to me to furnish characters referable only to one species, which, on the score of dimensions and general features, is inseparable from the so-called Ursus fossilis of Goldfuss,† and at all events from the smaller Spelean Bear found in English and other deposits, as distinguished from the larger congener found also in England, but more plentifully on the continent of Europe. Unless the skull from Kildare represents the Ursus arctos (and that, I think, is doubtful), all the others seem to me to belong to

* See Dr. R. Ball on the Skulls of Bears found in Ireland, "Proc. Roy. Irish Acad.," vol. iv. p. 416 (1850); Wilde, "Proc. Roy. Irish Acad.," vol. vii. p. 192 (1862); Scott, 'Catalogue of Mammalian Fossils discovered in Ireland,' "Jour. Geol. Soc. Dublin," vol. x. p. 144 (1864); Dr. Carte, "Jour. Geol. Soc. Dublin," vol. x. p. 114 (1864).

The relationship between Ursus ferox and Ursus arctos is very close, not only as regards fossil but also recent individuals, so much so that by external appearance only they are indistinguishable.

A fine cranium 13 inches in length was found in cutting a new channel for the river Boyne, in the barony of Carberry, co. Kildare; and is of peculiar interest from its resemblance to the Pyrenean variety of Ursus arctos, to which it has been referred by Dr. Carte.

the Ursus fossilis, which, so far as osteological and dental characters are concerned, would appear to have been the progenitor of the recent Ursus ferox, now repelled to Western North America. In this latter view I am supported by the distinguished palæontologist, Mr. Busk, F.R.S., whose differentiations, as regards several of the Irish crania, were

[graphic]

RECENT CRANIUM OF BEAR. UNDER SURFACE. (NAT. SIZE.)

made before I commenced to study them. It may be said, therefore, that Ursus feroa, as in England, belonged to the prehistoric fauna, and was a native of the island in the days of the Reindeer, Mammoth, Horse, and Wolf, with which its remains have been found associated, as also with exuvia of the Red

« PreviousContinue »