108 URSlDjE. 



disappeared altogether from the face of the earth. More- 

 over, the two extinct species alluded to, called Ursus spelaus 

 and Ursus priscus, have not come after each other, as they 

 themselves have been succeeded by the Ursus Arctos in later 

 times, but their fossil remains are found associated together 

 in the caves of Britain, as in those of the Continent. This 

 is a circumstance which of itself weighs against the hypo- 

 thesis, that the present European Bears are the degenerate 

 descendants of the huge Spelaean species. 



The Ursus priscus scarcely differs less than the Ursus 

 Arctos from the Ursus spelteus, yet it is as ancient a species 

 as the more formidable one, and has equally suffered 

 from causes of extinction which we are at present unable 

 fully to understand. 



On the other hand, we may, by the study of British 

 fossils alone, avoid the error of the opposite extreme of 

 multiplying nominal species, if, guided by the known laws 

 that regulate the range of deviation from a true specific 

 type, we make due allowance for diversities of age and sex 

 in a carnivorous and combative quadruped like the Bear ; 

 and we thus distinguish from the Ursus priscus, or the 

 Ursus Arctos, the fossil remains of young, though adult, 

 individuals, and those of the females of the great Ursus 

 spelaeus, which have given rise to the nominal species, 

 Ursus arctoideus and Ursus planus. 



Fig. 36. 



Young Ursus spelseus. Kent's Hole. 



