Sheppard : Remains of the Lion in East Yorkshire. 103 



from Hornsea, was noticed, and on communicating- with Mr. 

 Reid he informed me that this was the bone referred to in his 

 Memoir. It had evidently been examined by Mr. E. T. Newton, 

 palaeontologist to the Geolog-ical Survey, as a slip of paper was 

 attached to it with the following^ in his handwriting- : — 

 ' Right Metatarsal of Lion (Fe/is spela'a).' 



Another paper was gummed round the bone upon which was 

 similar information. 



On the occasion of the recent visit of the Yorkshire Geolog-ical 

 Society to Hull I was asked to exhibit and describe a few of our 

 more interesting- geological specimens, and for this purpose the 

 bone in question was taken from the case, where it had probably 

 rested, undisturbed, for nearly twenty years. A much-needed 

 wash resulted in a most fortunate discovery being- made. The 

 label, in an unknown handwriting-, g-ummed round the bone. 



came off, and revealed yet another. This was in the plain 

 hand of John Phillips, as follows :— 



.' Felis. Bielbecks. \V. Metatarsal, inner on rig-ht side.' 

 With this label the evidence of the Hornsea Lion was lost, to 

 the great relief of local g-eologists. 



The manner in which Clement Reid was misled is easily 

 accounted for. In the first place the bone is of a dark colour, 

 similar to those from the peat, and it was placed in a case which 

 contained several Deer, etc., bones from the Hornsea peat bed, 

 as well as mammalian remains from the Bielbecks deposit, near 

 Market Weighton. Being a small bone, it was put on a narrow 

 shelf, together with some small bones from the peat, for in 

 the old days the size of a specimen had much to do with its 

 classification ! 



There can be little doubt that the bone really is from 

 Bielbecks. In the same case is the femur of a Lion, in 

 a precisely similar state of preservation, labelled Bielbecks, 

 and other remains from the same deposit, including those of 

 Mammoth, Rhinoceros, Bison, Horse, and Deer. 



These probably found their way to Hull many years ago 

 when the Bielbecks deposit was examined by Phillips. His 

 attention was called to it in 1829 by Mr. W. H. Dykes, of Hull, 



1904 April I. 



