260 Miscellaneous. 



Ten species of the genus Pleuracantlius, modified as above, were 

 described by the author from the Coal-measures, principally of York- 

 shire. Eight of these were described as new. 



2. "On Mammalian Remains and Tree-trunks in Quaternary 

 Sands at Reading." By E. E. Poulton, Esq., F.G.S. 



The author described in detail a pit opened on the south slope of 

 the Thames valley on the Eedland Estate at Reading, about 36 feet 

 above the river-level. The north face shows gravels and alluvia 

 containing chalk-flints and fossils, fragments of Oolitic limestone 

 and fossils, and scattered materials of the high-level gravel, over- 

 lying reconstructed beds (sands and clays) composed chiefly of the 

 debris of the Woolwich and Reading beds, and in part of the base- 

 ment bed of the London Clay. The author noticed especially the 

 traces of fluviatile action displayed in these reconstructed Tertiary 

 materials, and the fossil remains found in the sands and gravels, 

 which included traces of Eleplias primigenius, Bos primigenms, 

 Equus fossilis, and ? Rhinoceros tichorhinus, besides numerous por- 

 tions of trunks of trees, in some parts of which traces of coni- 

 ferous structure had been recognized. The characters presented by 

 this pit were of interest, as adding another to the scattered evidences 

 of the existence in postglacial time in the valley of the Thames of 

 a larger river occupying that valley, and flowing at from 20 to 

 30 feet higher than the present river. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



The Cave-Bear of California. By E. D. Cope. 



In exploring a cavern in the Carboniferous Limestone of Shasta 

 County, Cal., James D. Richardson discovered the skull of a bear 

 beneath several inches of cave-earth and stalagmite. The speci- 

 men is in a good state of preservation, and demonstrates that the 

 cave-bear of that region was a species distinct alike from the cave- 

 bear of the East ( Ursus pristinus) and from any of the existing 

 species. In dimensions the skull equals that of the grizzly bear, 

 but it is very differently proportioned. The muzzle is much shorter 

 and is wide, and descends obliquely downward from the very con- 

 vex frontal region. It wants the large postorbital processes of the 

 grizzly, but has the tuberosities of the polar bear (U. maritimus), 

 which it also resembles in the convexity of the front. Sagittal 

 crest well developed. Three (one median and posterior) incisive 

 foramina ; three external infraorbital foramina. The teeth are 

 large ; and the series presents the peculiarity of being without dias- 

 tema. The crowns of the premolars are not preserved : but if there 

 were not three premolars, the second tooth has two well-developed 

 roots. First true molar with but two external and one internal 

 tubercle. The absence of diastema renders it necessary to separate 



