Batt—Fossil Mammalia of Ireland. 335 
testimony, both positive and negative, which is afforded by historians, is against 
its having survived into the historical period. St. Donatus, in A. p. 850, says it 
did not then exist, and other writers do not mention it. 
The principal recorded cases of the discovery of bones belonging to the Irish 
Bear are the following .—I. At Ballinmore, in the county Leitrim, where a cranium 
was found in the excavation for the Shannon and Erne Canal. This specimen 
formerly in the Earl of Enniskillen’s collection, is now in the British Museum 
(No. M. 230). II. Two crania were discovered in the year 1847 at a depth of 
seven feet in marl beneath peat, in a bog on the borders of Longford and 
Westmeath ;* they were deposited in the museum at Leeds by Mr. Denny, but we 
have casts of both of them in this Museum. III. A cranium was found in the 
year 1848 in an excayation at Clonbourne, near Parsonstown, at the depth of 
seven feet, under bog oak trees; it is now in the British Museum (No. 38906), and 
a cast of it isin this Museum. IY. A cranium was found in a cutting connected 
with the river Boyne, near Kilrathmurray, in the county Kildare; the specimen is 
now in this Museum. YV. At the Shandon Cave, in county Waterford, the greater 
portion of the skeleton of one individual and a fragment of a mandible were 
discovered in the year 1859. They are now in this Museum. Remains of at least 
two individuals were found in the Ballyuamintra Cave, in the county Waterford. 
They are also in this Museum. VI. Several bones were found in the year 1863 in 
a cutting which was made to lower the waters of Lough Gur, in the county Limerick. 
These were at one time supposed to have belonged to the Polar Bear, but Dr. Leith 
Adams has shown that they must be referred to the same species as the others. 
They are now in this Museum. 
2.—THE WOLF. 
Canis lupus. 
The earliest evidence of the existence of the wolf in Ireland is afforded by the 
discovery, as recorded by Dr. Leith Adams, of fragmentary bones belonging to 
several individuals, in association with bones of fox, horse, reindeer, red deer, 
bear, hare, and mammoth in the Shandon Cave, county Waterford ; from which it 
may be concluded that it inhabited this country in pleistocene times. The 
specimens referred to are now in this Museum. 
Bones not easily distinguishable from those of the dog, but considered to be 
wolf’s, were found associated with Irish elk remains in the cave at Ballynamintra, 
near Cappagh, county Waterford. These are also preserved in this Museum. 
Wolf bones were met with in prehistoric deposits in the Knockmore caves, 
* Proc. Roy. Irish Acad. (1849), vol. iv., pp. 416-420. 
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