192 ANIMAL LIFE PAST AND PRESENT. 



ponding tooth of the dog. In the teeth of the lower 

 jaw very similar differences may be observed, the 

 crown of the "flesh-tooth" being no higher than 

 that of the succeeding tooth, while its length is only 

 equal to that of the latter, instead of exceeding it by 

 twice its own length. The " eye-teeth " are moreover 

 stouter, with relatively lower crowns than those of the 

 dog. It is of course obvious that the broad flat crowns 

 of the hinder grinding- teeth of the bear are adapted to 

 a vegetable or mixed, rather than to a purely flesh diet ; 

 and it is noteworthy that in the Polar bear, which 

 subsists to a large extent on fish and putrid seal- or 

 whale-flesh, there is a tendency to a rather greater 

 development of the cusps of its hinder teeth than in 

 its congeners, whose food consists to a great extent of 

 vegetable or soft animal substances. In the Indian 

 sloth-bear, on the other hand, which feeds largely upon 

 honey, insects, &c., the teeth are reduced to a very small 

 size in proportion to the dimensions of the skull. 



If now we carry ourselves back in imagination to a 

 period in the earth's history, which although compara- 

 tively late from a geological point of view, yet is very 

 early indeed from a human one, we find evidence of 

 the existence in northern India, as well as in several 

 parts of Europe, of a huge bear-like animal, which has 

 received the somewhat inappropriate name of the 

 hyama-bear (in scientific language Hycenarctus). This 

 creature lived in India at a time when the Himalaya 

 was but a comparatively low chain of hills, and ages 

 before England was separated from the Continent, in a 



