442 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. TaNNO 1704. 



have their bottoms covered with animal earth, for some feet in depth, in all de- 

 grees of decomposition, the lowermost the most pure, and the uppermost but 

 little changed, with all the intermediate degrees; in which caves are formed a 

 vast number of stalactites, which might incrust the bones of those that die there. 



The bones in the caves in Germany are so much the object of the curious, 

 that the specimens are dispersed throughout Europe, which prevents a sufficient 

 number coming into the han<Is of any one person to make him acquainted with 

 the animals to which they belong. From the history and figures given by Esper, 

 it appears that there are the bones of several animals ; but what is curious, they 

 all appear to have been carnivorous, which we should not have expected. There 

 are teeth in number, kind, and mode of setting, exactly similar to the white 

 bear, others more like those of the lion ; but the representations of parts, how- 

 ever well executed, are hardly to be trusted to for the nicer characters, and much 

 less so when the parts are mutilated. 



The bones sent by the Margrave of Anspach agree with those described and 

 delineated by Esper as belonging to the white bear ; how far they are of the 

 same species among themselves, I cannot say ; the heads diff'er in shape from 

 each other; they are, on the whole, much longer for their breadth than in any 

 carnivorous animal I know of; they also differ from the present white bear, 

 which, as far as I have seen, has a common proportional breadth; it is supposed 

 indeed that the heads of the present white bear differ from each other, but the 

 truth of this assertion I have not seen heads enough of that animal to determine. 

 The heads not only vary in shape, but also in size, for some of them, when 

 compared with the recent white bear, would seem to have belonged to an animal 

 twice its size, while some of the bones correspond in size with those of the 

 white bear, and others are even smaller.* 



There are 2 ossa humeri, rather of a less size than those of the recent white 

 bear; a first vertebra, rather smaller; the teeth also vary considerably in size, 

 yet they are all those of the same tribe; so that the variety among themselves is 

 not less than between them and the recent. In the formation of the head, age 

 makes a considerable difference; the skull of a young dog is much more rounded 

 than an old one, the ridge leading back to the occiput, terminating in the 2 

 lateral ones, hardly exists in a young dog; and among the present bones there is 

 the back part of such a head, yet it is larger than the head of the largest mastiff; 

 how far the young white bear may vary from the old, similar to the young dog, 

 I do not know, but it is very probable. 



* It is to be understood, that the bones of tlie white bear that I have, belonged to one that had 

 been a show, and had not grown to the full or natural size ; and I make allowance for this in my as- 

 sertion, that the heads of those incrusted appear to belong to an animal twice the size of our white 

 bear. — Orig. 



