326 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA 



distinguished from the new Patagonian humerus by the remarkable lateral 

 compression of its shaft and the much greater downward extension of its 

 prominent and sharp deltoid ridge. The humerus in all the large species 

 of Fclis, on the other hand, only differs from the fossil now under discus- 

 sion in very small particulars. In fact, the humerus and metatarsals of 

 the existing Feiis onca are essentially identical with the bones from the Pata- 

 gonian cavern, except that they are rather smaller. I am therefore 

 inclined to regard the newly discovered remains as indicating a compara- 

 tively large variety of F. onca, which once lived in the temperate regions 

 of Patagonia, beyond the present range of this species. Such an occur- 

 rence would be a precise parallel to that of the Cave-Lion in Europe. It 

 is well known that nearly all the remains of F. Ico found in the Pleisto- 

 cene formations of the temperate parts of the Old World indicate animals 

 of somewhat larger size than any surviving in the warmer regions to which 

 the species is now confined.* 



It may be noted that bones of the Jaguar of ordinary dimensions have 

 been recorded from the Pampa formation of the Province of Buenos 

 Aires.t 



ArctotJieriu7n , sp. 



With the bones of Fclis just noticed, Roth provisionally associates 

 the imperfect distal end of a remarkably large right femur. He is 

 thus induced to suppose that the carnivore represented by the fragments 

 will prove to be a new genus and species of the Felidee. He suggests 

 for it the name of Icmisch listai, on the assumption that it is the mys- 

 terious quadruped which Ameghino states is known to the natives as the 

 lemisch. 



A comparison of the distal end of the femur in question with the femora 

 of Felidai in the British Museum seems to prove conclusively that it 

 cannot be referred even to the same family. Its width across the condyles 

 is much greater, compared with its antero-posterior diameter, than that 

 observed in any feline. Moreover, the pit for the tendon of the popliteus 

 muscle below the external condyle is unusually deep. In both these 

 respects the bone closely resembles the distal end of the femur of a I^ear. 

 1 have been therefore led to compare it with the corresponding part of 

 the extinct Bear of the Pampean formation, Arctotheriuin. 



Fortunately, the fine and nearly complete skeleton oi ArctotJicriiwi 

 bonaercnsc in the l^ravard Collection in the British Museum comprises 



=;= Dawkins and Sanford, "The British Pleistocene Mammalia" (Palseont. Soc, 

 1869), p. 150. 



I F. Ameghino, " Contribucion al Conocimiento de los Mamiferos de la Republica 

 Argentina " (1889), p. 342. 



