108 URSID&. 
disappeared altogether from the face of the earth. More- 
over, the two extinct species alluded to, called Ursus speleus 
and Ursus priscus, have not come after each other, as they 
themselves have been succeeded by the Ursus Arctos in later 
times, but their fossil remains are found associated together 
in the caves of Britain, as in those of the Continent. This 
is a circumstance which of itself weighs against the hypo- 
thesis, that the present Kuropean Bears are the degenerate 
descendants of the huge Spelzan species. 
The Ursus priscus scarcely differs less than the Ursus 
Arctos from the Ursus speleus, yet it is as ancient a species 
as the more formidable one, and has equally suffered 
from causes of extinction which we are at present unable 
fully to understand. 
On the other hand, we may, by the study of British 
fossils alone, avoid the error of the opposite extreme of 
multiplying nominal species, if, guided by the known laws 
that regulate the range of deviation from a true specific 
type, we make due allowance for diversities of age and sex 
in a carnivorous and combative quadruped like the Bear ; 
and we thus distinguish from the Ursus priscus, or the 
Ursus Arctos, the fossil remains of young, though adult, 
individuals, and those of the females of the great Ursus 
speleus, which have given rise to the nominal species, 
Ursus arctoideus and Ursus planus. 
Fig. 36. 
Young Ursus speleeus. Kent’s Hole. 
