CAVE EXPLORATIONS. 
311 
peculiarity that whilst in the north of Europe bears were much more 
numerous than hyaenas, in Britain the latter animal was much more 
frequently found. The northern limit at present known for the 
occurrence of the bear was Yorkshire ; southwards they were much 
more abundant. Very few remains of the bear had been found in 
Ireland, and for some time it was thought not to occur there at all, 
but in 1846-7 two remarkably fine crania of a gigantic species of bear 
were discovered seven feet from the surface in a deposit of marl 
beneath a bog on the borders of Westmeath. These specimens 
passed into the hands of Dr. Ball, of the Royal Irish Academy, and 
afterwards Mr. Glennan obtained possession of them, who in the 
autumn of 1863 lent them to Mr. Denny. The present paper contains 
a description of the skulls. One of them, the larger, somewhat 
resembled Ursus maritimus, but had belonged to an animal of much 
larger size, and this one Mr. Denny proposed to call Ursus planafrons 
from the peculiarly flat receding form of the anterior portion of the 
head. The other one was considered by Professor Owen, to whom 
the specimens were exhibited, to be closely allied to Ursus arctos. 
Mr. Denny concluded his paper by summarising the extinct forms of 
animals which had hitherto been found, and the relation that man 
probably bore to them. 
In the Museum at Leeds there was an ordinary socketed celt, 
with a loop, which had been obtained from Hanwick, in Lincolnshire. 
It was peculiar from being made of lead, and formed the subject of a 
communication by Mr. Denny to this Society, in November, 1865. 
It had been found by Mr. John Green associated with elephants' 
teeth in gravel at the place named. Mr. Denny found that there 
were a number of barrows in the district, and he thought it was very 
probable that this lead celt had been obtained from one of them. 
Remarking on the occurrence of celts in burial mounds, Mr. Denny 
mentioned a case in which Mr. Fyffe, after digging for the foundation 
of a house near Wellington, New Zealand, suddenly came upon a 
human skeleton, doubtless that of a Maori, which had been buried 
in a sitting posture, with the arms extended towards the mouth ; 
near was an entire egg of the moa, and between the legs numerous tools 
of jade. It was probable that the moa's egg was buried with the 
