II 



THE BEAR 



Ursus arctos. 



To treat first of the earliest historic species which 

 has died out, no doubt can exist that the Brown 

 Bear inhabited Britain in times of which history 

 takes cognisance, the few written records which have 

 come down to us of its former existence here being 

 supplemented by the best of all evidence, the dis- 

 covery of its remains. These have been found in the 

 most recent formations throughout England, which 

 can scarcely be regarded as fossil, and, if not abso- 



