Schakff, Skymour, and Nkyvton — Cantlepuok Cave. 53 



showed traces of having been gnawed, while immense numbers of Reindeer 

 bones which could only have been dragged into the cave by beasts of prey 

 had remained untouched. 



As regards the affinities of the Irish Hyaena, they agree with the Spotted 

 Hyaena (H. crocuta) rather than with the Striped Hyrena [Hyaena striata) 

 or with Hyaena arvernemis. The Irish Hyaena resembles the English and 

 Continental Cave Hyrena, which forms a peculiar variety of the Spotted 

 Hyaena. 1 By some it is indeed looked upon as a distinct species (H. spelaea). 

 The teeth in this Cave Hyaena were more powerful, so that the whole head 

 was probably more muscular and larger than in its modern representative. 

 The legs and toes, on the other hand, were shorter in the Irish Hyasna. The 

 whole appearance of the latter was more disproportionate than that of its 

 modern relative which still inhabits South Africa. 



Bear {Ursus arctos). 



In his catalogue of the Mammals of western Europe, based on the British 

 Museum Collection, Mr. Miller 2 states that the common European Bear 

 {Ursus arctos) is not certainly known to have occurred in Ireland. This 

 allegation is all the more remarkable, as there is a skull of a fossil European 

 Bear from Ireland in the British Museum, while I have repeatedly urged that 

 this bear must have been very abundant in this country formerly. I have 

 recorded the European Bear from bogs, and from the caves of Kesh and Clare. 

 Although we have not actually any historical record of its having lived in 

 Ireland, we possess ample evidence of its occurrence in this island within 

 human times, and there are several Irish names for Bear. 



In the Castlepook Cave the bones and teeth of Bear were met with 

 everywhere in great profusion, both above and below the stalagmite. There 

 were bones of adults of enormous size, of very small individuals — possibly 

 females — and of young in all stages of growth. Even of tiny and unborn 

 Bears the bones and milk-teeth were discovered. From a series of toe-bones 

 I ascertained that I had examined the remains of at least nine adult Bears. 

 One of these toe-bones (M.D. 106) belonged to an abnormally large specimen. 

 Apart from the size, the Irish Bear does not seem to me to differ from the 

 still existing Brown Bear of Europe. Professor Leith Adams 3 expressed the 



1 Reynolds, S. H. : The Cave Hyajna. " British Pleistocene Mammalia," vol. ii, 

 pt. 1. Palaeontographical Soc. 1902. 



- Miller, (ten-it S. : "Catalogue of Mammals of Western Europe," p. 287. London, 

 1912. 



3 Adams, A. Leith: "On the recent and extinct Irish Mammals,'' p. 02. Scient. 

 Proc. R. Dublin Society (N.S.), vol. ii. 1880. 



