Curiosities of Science. Io3 



The cave-bear has left its remains in vast abundance in Ger- 

 many. In our own caves, the bones of hysenas are found in 

 greater quantities. The marks which the teeth of the hyaena 

 make upon the bones which it gnaws are quite unmistakable. 

 Our English hyaenas had the most undiscriminating appetite, 

 preying upon every creature, their own species amongst others. 

 Wolves, not distinguishable from those which now exist in 

 France and Germany, seem to have kept company with the 

 hyaenas ; and the Felis spelcea, a sort of lion, but larger than 

 any which now exists, ruled over all weaker brutes. Here, 

 says Professor Owen, we have the original British Lion. A 

 species of Machairodus has left its remains at Kent's Hole, near 

 Torquay. In England we had also the beaver, which still 

 lingers on the Danube and the Rhone, and a larger species, 

 which has been called Trogontherium (gnawing beast), and a 

 gigantic mole. 



THE GREAT CAVE TIGER OR LION OF BRITAIN. 



Remains of this remarkable animal of the drift or gravel 

 period of this country have been found at Brentford and else- 

 where near London. Speaking of this animal, Professor Owen 

 observes, that "it is commonly supposed that the Lion, the 

 Tiger, and the Jaguar are animals peculiarly adapted to a 

 tropical climate. The genus Felis (to which these animals 

 belong) is, however, represented by specimens in high northern 

 latitudes, and in all the intermediate countries to the equator." 

 The chief condition necessary for the presence of such animals 

 is an abundance of the vegetable-feeding animals. It is thus 

 that the Indian tiger has been known to follow the herds of 

 antelope and deer in the lofty mountains of the Himalaya to the 

 verge of perpetual snow, and far into Siberia. " It need not, 

 therefore," continues Professor Owen, "excite surprise that 

 indications should have been discovered in the fossil relics of 

 the ancient mammalian population of Europe of a large feline 

 animal, the contemporary of the mammoth, of the tichorrhine 

 rhinoceros, of the great gigantic cave-bear and hyaena, and the 

 slayer of the oxen, deer, and equine quadrupeds that so 

 abounded during the same epoch." The dimensions of this 

 extinct animal equal those of the largest African lion or Bengal 

 tiger ; and some bones have been found which seem to imply 

 that it had even more powerful limbs and larger paws. 



THE MAMMOTHS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



Dr. Buckland has shown that for long ages many species 

 of carnivorous animals now extinct inhabited the caves of the 

 British islands. In low tracts of Yorkshire, where tranquil 

 lacustrine (lake-like) deposits have occurred, bones (even thoso 



