ANCIENT AND EXTINCT BRITISH QUADRUPEDS. 125 
was a native of that island. It was, however, generally distributed 
over Central and Northern Europe, and it still lingers on the 
Eastern Alps and in Russia, and is spread over Northern Asia, and 
probably also the boreal regions of North America. In the colour 
of the fur, and also in size, in different countries it is subject to 
considerable variation, so that naturalists considered the individuals 
from Norway, Syria, the Himalayas, and Siberia as so many distinct 
species. If the mere external coloration, however, and a few other 
minor points be disregarded, it will be found that the bony skeletons 
of all agree in characters which, as compared with other bears, at 
once place them in the same category with the typical Brown Bear 
(U. arctos). In regard to size, the skulls and bones dug up in the 
fens, peat-bogs, and superficial deposits in England certainly 
belonged to large individuals, but not larger than many now 
inhabiting different parts of Europe and Asia. 
Not only does historical evidence, accompanied by the discovery 
of its bones in peat and alluvium, point to the existence of the 
Brown Bear in unrecorded times, but we find its bones, associated 
with those of at all events very much larger species, in the caverns 
and deep soils of England; moreover, seeing that the remains in 
either case represent very old individuals, and that the teeth and 
bones differ in many respects, there is good cause to believe in 
the former existence in Great Britain of at least two species of 
Bear. 
The Great Bear of the caverns and the Brown Bear were 
therefore contemporaneous. As to the former, on arranging and 
comparing exuvie collected in Great Britain and on the Continent 
with bones of living species, it has been found that they admit of 
division into three, or at least two, distinct forms. One agrees with 
the skeleton of the Grisly Bear, now chiefly found in the Rocky 
Mountains and western prairies; the other (Ursus spelceus) and 
perhaps a third (U. priscus) have no living representatives, and 
may therefore be considered as having become extinct in Great 
Britain long before the historical period. But the Grisly Bear, as 
far as is known, seems to have disappeared likewise about the 
same time. 
The Ursus priscus was the giant of all. Although not rare in 
England, it appears to have been very common in Southern 
France and in the Pyrenees, judging from the quantities of bones 
discovered in the caves and soils. It would appear that, irrespective 
