74 MR. G. BUSK ON THE ANCIENT OR 
tains of Gherara Dhebhar; and another Scheik, living close to Heliopolis, stated to 
him that he had often seen the Bear, and followed it in the evening into the very 
mountain of Thaya. 
In further confirmation of the very recent, if not present, existence of a Bear in the 
immediate neighbourhood of the cavern explored by M. Bourguignat, he relates that he 
himself, during his exploration of the cavern, noticed in the soft soil large foot-prints, 
as sharp and fresh as if they had not been made more than an hour or two. They 
were the footprints of a heavy animal, and excited great emotion amongst the Arabs 
who accompanied him, whose exclamations of Deb! Deb! the Arab word for Bear’, 
showed, at any rate, that they were not only familiar with its name, but also not un- 
prepared to witness its sudden appearance. 
The existence of a fossil Bear in Algeria has, however, been long well known, a 
considerable portion of a cranium having been discovered so far back as 1835 by M. 
Milne-Edwards? in an ossiferous breccia fifty metres above the level of the sea, in a red 
calcareous tufa. M. Milne-Edwards, from what he was able to make out with regard 
to the size and shape of the cranium, was induced to think that, although of very large 
size, it presented more resemblance to that of U. dabiatus than of any other living 
species. 
I may now state the conclusions which, as it appears to me, may be drawn from the 
above evidence, about the Ursine remains from Genista cave. 
1. That they belong exclusively to the more ancient fauna. 
2. That they afford evidence of at least four individuals, varying in size and age very 
considerably, one of which has suffered compound fracture of the hind leg, from which 
it had recovered with great deformity of the limb. 
3. That it was a species of large size, and probably equal to the largest existing 
Brown or Grizzly Bears, but not equal to U. speleus. 
4. That it differs essentially in dental and other osteological characters from 
U. speleus. 
5. That the preponderance of its characters is in favour of its being closely related 
to U. fossilis sive priscus, or to a form intermediate between that and U. arctos, var. 
isabellinus. 
6. That it may have been also closely related to one or other of the fossilized Bears 
whose remains were discovered by M. Bourguignat in the Cavern of Thaya in Algeria. 
’ T have been lately informed, however, that by “ Deb” the Arabs understand, not the Bear, but the Hyena. 
2 Ann. d. Se. Naturelles 2me sér, Zoologie, tom. vii, p. 216 (1837): “Note sur une bréche osseuse situce 
entre Oran et Mers-el-Kebir.” 
