96 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



the ultimate has the contour of that of the Grisly and Ursus fossilis. 

 The dimensions of the crown of this tooth are 40 x 24 millimetres, and 

 the penultimate molar 24 x 20 millimetres. 



The mandible includes the canine much injured sockets of the 1st 

 p. m. ; the sockets of 1st and 3rd, and portion of the 4th p. m. ; the 

 sockets of 1st and 2nd, and the ultimate molar are entire, hut very 

 much worn ; it is rounded behind, as in Ursus fossilis, the same part 

 being usually more angular in Ursus ardos and the gigantic cave Bear 

 (Urstis spelcdus). 



The dimensions of this ramus, compared with that of a very old 

 individual of Ursus ferox, show it to have belonged to a larger indivi- 

 dual. There are seemingly no other points of distinction in this 

 specimen, but the fragment of the articular extremity of the other 

 ramus shows the thick incurved angular process apparently more pro- 

 nounced, as in Ursus fossilis and U. ferox, than in U. ardos. 



The other bones referred by Carte to Ursus ardos are an atlas, 

 2 cervical, 2 dorsal, and 2 lumbar vertebrae, with fragments of spinous 

 processes and ribs. JN'one of these appear to me to present mor- 

 phological characters of importance. As regards dimensions, however,, 

 they represent a large Bear, as compared with recent species. The 

 atlas, for example, gives the following : — 



Height of the arch inferiorly, . . . l'i%- inches. 



Vertebral foramen, 1'8 x 1*5 inches. 



Anterior articular surface, . . . 1*11 x 1- inches. 



Posterior articular surface, . . . 1-3 x l* inches. 



The long bones agree in their characters and dimensions with the 

 usual specimens of Ursus fossilis, but the femur is fully an inch and 

 a-half shorter than the Loch Gur specimen, which doubtless belonged 

 to a very large Bear. As compared with the elements of a skeleton of 

 an aged Grisly in the Museum of the Eoyal College of Surgeons of 

 England, they indicate a much larger animal, the humerus being one 

 and a-half inches, the femur one inch, and the tibia one and a-quarter 

 inches longer. 



These ursine remains from Shandon cave seem to me referrible to 

 one species, and are indistinguishable from similar parts of Ursus 

 fossilis, and Ursus ferox. 



4. Two crania now in the Museum of the Philosophical Society of 

 Leeds are stated to have been found seven feet under ground in a cut- 

 away bog at Ballymahon, on the borders of Longford and West- 

 meath.^^ The teeth and mandibles are wanting in both. The skulls 

 show the sockets of the first and third premolars. The zygomatic 

 arcade is like the others just described, and the posterior nasal open- 

 ings are also of the same character. The specimens differ considerably 



3" Denny, Journal of the Geological and Polytechnic Society of Yorkshire^ 

 April, 1864. 



