128 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
Tur Bririsa Lion is no myth. Two species of the genus Leo 
existed in England long after the glacial epoch. In one of these 
the canine teeth, so conspicuous in dogs and cats, were enormously 
developed; and their sharpness and curved form has suggested for 
the animal the name by which it is known, the Sabre-toothed Lion. 
Strange to say, the only portions of its anatomy hitherto discovered 
in this country (in Kent’s Cavern) have been some of these very 
teeth; but on the European continent, as well as in the Himalayas, 
skulls have been found, as well as canine teeth, the latter varying 
in length from six to eight inches. If we may judge of the pro- 
portions of this beast from the size of its teeth, it must indeed 
hare been a monster. It was a contemporary of the extinct bears 
and larger herbivorous quadrupeds, but could never have been 
numerous. Indeed, had it been as common as the existing African 
and Asiatic Lion is in many inhabited parts of these continents at 
the present day, neither primeval nor savage man could have held 
his ground against it. The other species of British Lion was 
both taller and stouter and had broader paws than its modern 
representative, otherwise the latter would be regarded as a 
degenerate descendant of the older race. 
There is no sufficient reason for believing that such animals as 
the Lion, Elephant, or Rhinoceros did not frequent cold regions. 
The short-haired Tiger of Bengal is replaced by a woolly-haired 
Tiger in northern China; and in the frozen soil of Siberia disco- 
veries of entire carcases of Elephants and Rhinoceroses clad im 
dense fur coats prove the exception to the general rule with 
reference to the outer covering of their living representatives. The 
fossil Lion, like the large fossil Bear and Hyena, was long con- 
sidered to be distinct from any living species, but recent discoveries 
and comparisons have indicated the closest relationship between 
the living and the dead. Vestiges of the Lion have been discovered 
in nearly twenty British caverns, as well as in the deposits of 
rivers; associated in the former case with remains of Bears, 
Elepbants, Rhinoceroses and other herbivorous animals, as well 
as with Hyenas. In fact, the Lion was one of the earliest 
sojourners in the land after the glacial period had commenced to 
decline. 
A Leoparp or PANTHER, apparently not larger than existing 
species, also roamed over England in company with the preceding. 
