70 REPORT— 1842. 



last-described molar and the canine, even when compared with the lower jaw 

 of a Cave Bear absolutely shorter, The preceding interspace in the Fen Bear 

 contains the sockets of two small spurious molars, 'each with a simple fang, 

 but there is no trace of these in the Cave Bear, save in very rare excep- 

 tions ; and this difference cannot be the effect of age, because the lower jaw 

 of the Fen Bear, which has the grinders moderately worn by mastication, is 

 here compared with the jaw of a young and small Ursus spelceus, in which 

 the tubercles of the grinding teeth are all entire. The Fen Bear resembles 

 the Ursus prisons in so far as the latter retains the first false molar, but dif- 

 fers in possessing the second, which is wanting in a younger specimen of the 

 Ursus priscus ; it differs also in the greater extent of the interspace between 

 the canine and the third false molar ; and, more importantly, in the form of 

 that tooth, which in the Ursus priscus presents a second cusp on the inner 

 side, and a little behind the first, which is wholly wanting in the Fen Bear. 

 The ramus of the jaw is deeper, and the slope of the symphysis is more gra- 

 dual. In all the particulars in which the Fen Bear differs from the two ex- 

 tinct species above cited, from the caverns, it agrees with the existing Black 

 Bears of Europe, from which it does not appear to differ in any well-marked 

 specific character. The Grisly Bear of North America agrees with the Cave 

 Bear in the absence of the first two false molars and in the more complicated 

 crown of the third false molar of the lower jaw. 



Subgenus Meles. 

 Fossil remains of the Badger {Meles vulgaris) have not been discovered in 

 British strata more ancient than the diluvium. They offer no characters 

 distinguishable from those of the existing species : the comparison support- 

 ing this conclusion has been made on the right branch of the lower jaw, with 

 the entire series of teeth, of the fossil Badger, from Kent's Hole, Torquay. 



Remains of the Badger have been found fossil in the cave at Berry Head, 

 Devon. 



Genus Putorius. 



Remains of a species of Weasel, not to be distinguished from the bones of 

 the Putorius vulgaris, have been obtained from the bone-cave at Kirkdale, 

 and from Kent's Hole, near Torquay. The collection of the late Mr. 

 Mac Enery contained a nearly entire skull, having all the characters of that 

 of the common Weasel, but evidently a contemporary with the Cave Bears 

 and Hyaenas, now extinct. 



Remains of a somewhat larger species of Putorius, probably Put. Ermi- 

 neus, have been discovered in the bone-cave at Berry Head. 



A cranium stained red and absorbent from the loss of animal matter, of 

 the size and conformation of that of the Putorius Euro, was obtained, with 

 other fossils, from one of the raised beaches at Plymouth. 



Genus Canis. 



Amongst the fossils referable to the Wolf ( Canis lupus) which have been 

 discovered, associated with those of the Hyaena and Bear in most of the 

 bone-caves of England, as at Kirkdale, at Paviland, at Oreston, in Kent's 

 Hole, in the Mendip caverns, &c, the most remarkable is an almost entire 

 skull, discovered in Kent's Hole. This does not exceed in size the skull of a 

 fine male Arctic Wolf, but the penultimate molar is a little larger, and the 

 lower border of the jaw rather more convex. 



Remains of a smaller species of Canis, not distinguishable from those of 

 the Fox (Canis vulpes), have been found in Kirkdale (a calcaneuui and 



