236 Miscellaneous. 
Ursus priscus of Goldfuss from Gailenruth cavern, and the existing 
largest varieties of Ursus arctos, or the Irish bears. These specimens 
have much strengthened, if not quite confirmed, a growing suspicion 
that U. priscus is specifically identical with, and was the progenitor 
of, our European U. arctos; at the same time, they prove that U. 
priscus was not the mere female, as M. De Blainville believes, of U.” 
speleus. Your three specimens are all of the same species; the 
largest is the male, the smallest with well-worn molars, the female. 
Now the large male skull establishes the specific distinction of the 
equally large male Ursus speleus, and consequently the specific and 
not merely sexual distinction of U. priscus ; but at the same time, the 
Trish crania show that the character of the forehead alluded to in my 
‘British Fossil Mammalia,’ p. 83, is not constant, and not good for 
a specific difference with Ursus arctos. To conclude, then, as at 
present informed, I should refer your Irish skulls to Ursus arctos ; 
and the least degenerated representative of that species now living, 
viz. the great black bear, or very dark brown variety of the Scandi- 
navian wilds, is that which comes closest to the old Irish bears. 
Whether this respectable carnivore contmued to exist after the 
slaughter of the last megaceros, will be shown by the precise bed in 
which the specimens were found. I should like to know the authority, 
if any, for their derivation from peat bog, and not from shell marl, if 
the case be so. 
‘* Ever yours, 
*« (Signed) R. Owen.” 
Mr. Ball was of opinion, from examination of the original bear 
skulls, that they were not in the peat, but in the mar! below it, where 
he believed all the heads of the megaceros, probably fifty, which he 
had closely inspected, were found. In no case was peat to be dis- 
covered in the cavities, while in many marl was present. He ex- 
pressed his gratification in finding that his own views were supported 
by those of Professor Owen, from whom, on this and other occasions, 
he had received kind aid. He also expressed his obligations to the 
Earl of Enniskillen, Mr. Baker, Mr. Cooke, and Mr. Warren, and 
concluded by moving the thanks of the Academy to Mr. Abraham 
Whyte Baker, sen., for his kindness in presenting casts of his valuable. 
specimens to its museum of antiquities. 
On the employment of Tar to preserve Wheat from the Attack of the 
Weevil. By M. Caruuar. 
Ina late number of the ‘Comptes Rendus’ a note appeared by M. 
G. Barruel relative to the action of carbonic oxide upon weevils and the 
employment of this gas for their destruction. Some journals, and 
among others ‘ L’ Echo Agricole,’ very lately published another means 
of destroying these insects, pointed out by Mr. William Little, and 
which consists in the use of ammoniacal gas. This young English 
chemist states that in the presence of this gas the weevils perish 
instantly, as if struck by lightning. 
I have proved, before several witnesses, that ammonia does not kill 
