On the Recent and Extinct Irish Mammals. 53 
of them presented characters distinct from any known species, 
and for which he proposed a new name (Ursus planifrons).* 
The teeth are entirely wanting in both specimens, otherwise 
the crania are nearly entire. The second premolar, as usual in 
both fossil forms and Ursus ferox,and also Ursus arctosis suppressed 
in the above. These fossil skulls differ considerably in relative 
dimensions (see Table), and especially as regards the sagittal ridge 
and frontal triangle formed by the divergence of the two frontal 
ridges. Otherwise in the general contour of the jugal arcade, 
posterior nares, and smaller details they seem indistinguishable 
from the Leitrim cranium and that of Ursus ferox, whilst a com- 
parison as to the dimensions of various portions of the crania 
show the variability both relatively and absolutely in individuals, 
and consequently the disposition to mutability peculiar to the 
members of the genus generally. 
Thus, whilst the Leitrim skull is longer a good deal than either 
of the above, it is equal to, and even narrower than one of 
them at the parietals, and the same obtains in the iength between 
the orbit and pre-maxillaries. In the Leitrim skull, the length 
of the molar series is 112 millimetres, against 106 millimetres, 
and 104 millimetres. The dimensions of the temporal fossz are 
pretty equal in the three. Altogether the contrasts as regard 
the above and the other crania show that the skull which dis- 
plays the greatest length may not necessarily preserve like 
proportions in other admeasurements, For example, the snout 
may be longer or shorter in proportion, and the breadth of the 
forehead may vary very much, as shown in the Table p. 64. I 
can see no morphological characters sufficient to separate the 
crania from Longford from that of Leitrim and from the skull 
of Ursus ferox, 
III. URSINE REMAINS FROM KING’S COUNTY. 
During the formation of a canal at Clonbourne, near Parsons- 
town, the skull of a bear was discovered in 1848 at the depth of 
seven feet in alluvial deposit under bog oak trees.t 
* Ona supposed new species of Fossil Bear from Ireland, by Henry Denny, A.L.S. 
Read April, 1864, at the Geological and Polytechnical Society of West Riding of Yorkshire. 
t Cat. Industrial Exhibition, Dublin, 1853, p. 152. 
