found, associated with bones of the Rhinoceros, Spotted Hyæna, Badger, Ermine (or Stoat), Polecat, Wolf, Fox, Otter, Grisly Bear, Brown Bear and Great Cave Bear, Reindeer, Roebuck, Red Deer, Bison, Urus (or Giant Ox), Hippopotamus, Pig, Horse, two species of Elephants, Hare, Rabbit, Water Rat, Cat, Lion, and Great-horned Deer. In the Devonshire caves the same animals, with the addition of the Sabre-toothed Lion and the Lemming. In the brick-earths and deposits of the Thames an exact repetition of the first have been found, with the addition of the Beaver. The celebrated cavern of Kirkdale was a den of Hyænas, where nearly all the animals of the other caves were found, thus showing a very general distribution throughout the country. The only Irish cave or river deposit at all fruitful was the cavern of Shandon, in the county of Waterford, where remains of the Mammoth, Elephant, Horse, Reindeer, Red Deer, Grisly Bear, Wolf, Fox and Hare were found associated. Scotland, not possessing many limestone caverns, and the Highlands being of granitic formations, together possibly with the effects of a rigorous climate during the period when the quadrupeds in question were living in England, may account for the absence of remains of any save the Wolf, Mammoth and Reindeer, although others may remain to be discovered.
I now propose to note a few of the more interesting details which geologists have brought to light concerning the various species of animals which formerly inhabited the British Islands, but which are now either extinct or only exist in a few localities and in greatly diminished numbers.
The Brown Bear is one of the few extinct British beasts which survived up to the historical period, and, although it had disappeared probably for centuries beforehand in England, we have it on excellent authority that it was common on the Scotch Highlands as late as the middle of the eleventh century.[1] The date of its existence in Ireland is not recorded;[2] indeed, as will be presently shown, there are doubts if the Brown Bear (Ursus arctos)
- ↑ Pennant says it was a native of Scotland in 1057.
- ↑ No tradition has yet been found with reference to its Irish residence, although the name math-gamhuin (calf of the plains) is supposed by many authorities to refer to the Bear. St. Donatus, who died a.d. 840, asserts it was not in the island in his time.— A.L.A. [The skulls of Bears referred to by Dr. Ball (Trans. Roy. Irish Acad., 1849) as having been found in Ireland, are now considered to have belonged to the Grisly Bear.—Ed.]
