494 PEOCEEDINGS OE THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [June 21' 



B^ack Bear — Ursus arctos*. It is indeed very remarkable that the 

 remains of Ursus arctos should be so very rarely found, as the range 

 of the species in Britain extends as far back as the period of the 

 great Carnivora. 



Its remains have been found in the caverns of Wookey Hole, 

 and in the low-level brick-earth of the Thames valley at Crayford, 

 in Kent. A fine skull preserved in the Woodwardian Museum, at 

 Cambridge, and portions of skuUs and jaws in the collections of the 

 Earl of EnniskiUen and Sir Philip M. G. Egerton were obtained also 

 from the peat of the Manea Een in Cambridgeshire (see Owen, Brit. 

 Eoss. Mam. pp. 77-81). Professor Owen cites it also from a cavern 

 at Arnside Knott, near Kendal. During the Eoman occupation of 

 Britain it was sufficiently abundant in this country to be exported 

 to Rome for the gladiatorial shows, unless Martial's allusion to the 

 Ursus Caledonius be merely a flight of poetical imagination — 



Nuda Caledonio sic pectora priebuit urso, 

 Non falsa in cruce laureolus. 



The family of the Gordons are said to derive the three bears' heads 

 upon their banner from the fact of one of their ancestors, in the 

 reign of King Malcolm III., having killed a great and fierce bear in 

 Scotland, in the year 1057, and being ordered thereupon by the king 

 to bear this cognizance in memory of his deed of daring. This would 

 appear to be good evidence of the Bear having lived jn North Britain 

 in a wild state, at least up to the middle of the 11th century. The 

 importation of Bears (Ursus arctos) into Britain for the barbarous 

 practice of bear-baiting, only rendered illegal by an Act of Parlia- 

 meuc m the reign of William IV., would be an additional reason for 

 their remains being more abundantly discovered ; and yet, so far as 

 I kf ow, this specimen from Yorkshire is the only one, with the ex- 

 ception of that of Wookey Hole Cavern, that has been found asso- 

 ciated with traces of Man in Britain. The extensive range of the 

 si)ecies in time prevents its being cited in evidence of the antiquity 

 of the Eichmond kitchen-heap. 



The remains of Cervus clama in Britain have not yet been proved 

 to be of higher antiquity than the first Soman invasion. M. Lartet 

 suggests in a letter to me that the species may have been introduced 

 ii fco this country by the Romans. No trace of it has been found in 

 a Pleistocene deposit. 



The following bones were also determined by Mr. Dawkins: — 



Canis familiaris. — Eemur and humerus. 



Susscrofa. — Seven small lower jaws, of young individuals, aU more 

 or less cut or broken. 



Equvs. — Two metatarsals and two lower jaws. 



Cervus elaplius. — SkuU, fragment of an antler, a tine, and two 

 metacarpals. 



Cervus clama. — A small antler, w ith the palm broken off. 



Bos longifrons. — Numerous teeth and bones, and upwards of forty- 

 five horn- cores. 



* The portion of the paper relating to the occuiTence of bones of Ursus arctos 

 is printed in full. 



