90 URSID.E. 



between the canine tooth and the first of the series of four 

 molars ; the complicated crown of the first and smallest of 

 these persistent teeth, and the superior breadth of the fourth 

 molar as compared with that in the common and Grisly 

 Bears.* The size of the Bacton fossil is not equal to that of 

 the jaw of the largest specimens of Cave Bear, but it exceeds 

 some of the jaws which have apparently belonged to young 

 females of the Ursus spelaus : it measures ten inches three 

 lines in length, and the length of the series of molars is 

 three inches and a half. In the lower jaw of an Ursus 

 spelteus from the Gailenreuth cavern, now in the British 

 Museum, measuring eight inches nine lines in length, the 

 series of four molars is three inches ten lines in length ; in 

 another jaw of the Ursus spelaus from the same locality 

 measuring twelve inches in length, the series of molar teeth 

 is also three inches ten lines in length ; and these impor- 

 tant and least varying instruments of digestion precisely 

 correspond in number, size, and structure, with those in the 

 shorter jaw. 



In the Ursus priscus, and the largest specimens of 

 Europsean, Polar, or Grisly Bears, the specific differences in 

 the forms and proportions of the molar series of teeth are 

 readily recognisable, although the total length of the jaw may 

 exceed that of the jaws of the young, and probably female 

 Spelaean Bears, which have acquired their adult dentition. 



An idea of the formidable size which the old males of the 

 Ursus speleeus attained in this country, may be estimated 

 by the upper canine tooth, from the cave at Kirkdale, 

 figured by Dr. Buckland,-f- and by the one here figured (Jig. 

 29) from Kent's Hole, Torquay. It matches the canine 

 teeth of the largest of the continental specimens of the 

 Ursus spelteus, the size of which extinct Bear Cuvier says 

 must have equalled that of a large Horse. 



* Fig. 35, b. -\- Reliquia: Diluviante, PI. 6, fig. 1 . 



