URSUS SPEL^US. 97 



Of no other quadruped than the Bear is the femur more 

 likely to be mistaken by the unpractised Anatomist for 

 that of the human subject, especially the femur of the 

 gigantic extinct species commonly found in caves : figures 

 of the human thigh-bone (fig. 33) and of that of the 

 Ursus spelceus (fig. 32), reduced to the same proportions, 

 are, therefore, subjoined. 



The bear's femur differs chiefly in its greater thickness 

 compared with its length ; in being straighter ; in the 

 much greater vertical extent of the large trochanter 

 (a), and the less projection of the small trochanter (5), in 

 the less oblique inflection of the neck of the bone, in the 

 minor expansion of the distal condyles, and in the smaller 

 size of the articular surface for the patella or knee-pan. 



The difference between the femur of the Ursus speleeus 

 and the femur of the Ursus Arctos and Ursus fer ox, is ana- 

 logous to that which has been pointed out in the humeri ; 

 the femur of the Grisly Bear being broader in proportion to 

 its length, especially at its two extremities : it is owing to 

 this breadth that the lesser trochanter is thrown wholly to 

 the posterior surface of the bone, the inner margin being 

 continued beyond it, whilst in the Cave Bear the lesser 

 trochanter, though on the posterior surface of the bone, pro- 

 jects a little beyond the inner margin. At the distal end 

 of the bone the tuberosity above the internal condyle, cor- 

 responding with that in the humerus, is larger and more 

 prominent in the Grisly than in the Cave Bear : the same 

 difference in the position of the lesser trochanter is pre- 

 sented by the White Bear as compared with the Cave 

 Bear, and the extremities of the bone are relatively 

 broader in the White Bear. 



I have determined portions of the fossil leg-bones 

 (tibiae and fibulae), entire ankle or tarsal bones, and bones 



