88 URSID.E. 



the antepenultimate grinder and the canine is relatively 

 less than in the Cave Bear (17. speleeus), and it contains 

 two small and simple premolars in specimens, which, from 

 the worn state of the molar teeth, have belonged to older 

 individuals than those Cave Bears whose skulls show no 

 trace of premolars. 



The superiority of size, and some other characters which 

 distinguish the great Ursus spelaus, have been pointed out 

 in the works of Rosenmuller, of Soemmerring, of Goldfuss, 

 and of Cuvier: the most striking distinction is the con- 

 vex elevation of the forehead, and the sudden sinking of 

 the concave line, which leads forwards to the nasal bones. 

 This character is well shown in the fine fossil cranium, 

 from the cavern of Gailenreuth (Jig. 28) ; which is intro- 

 duced at the head of the present section in the absence of 

 the opportunity of representing the same character in a 

 British specimen of the skull of the Ursus spelaus. 



The evidence of the former existence of this extinct 

 species in England is derived from the lower jaw and 

 other bones of the skeleton, especially the humerus and 

 femur, and from teeth, either detached, or in situ in the 

 lower jaw. 



M. de Blainville, however, the latest author on the rela- 

 tions of recent and fossil Bears, concludes a detailed sum- 

 mary of the characters indicated by his predecessors in 

 proof of the specific distinction of the Ursus spelaus, by the 

 statement, that it differs in no respect in its osteology or 

 dentition from the characters which he has found in the 

 Ursus Arctos, and especially in the Ursus ferox.* 



" D'apres ces differentes considerations, nous regardons comme presque hors 

 de doute que les cranes de 1'Ours fossile attribues a VU. speUtus proviennent d'in- 

 dividus adultes du sexe male les plus vigoureux, et ne constituent nullement une 

 espece. Et en effet, toutes les parties characteristiques que nous avons exposees 

 dans notre Osteographie et dans notre Oddntographie, ne presentent rien de dif- 



