74 ME. G. BUSK ON THE ANCIENT OE 



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 M'as 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. labiatus 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, vaiying in size and age very 

 considerably, one of which has suflFered 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. sjieheus. 



4. That it differs essentially in dental and other osteological characters from 

 U. sjielwus. 



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. arcfos, var. 

 isabellimis. 



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. 



' I have been lately informed, however, that hy " Deb " the Arabs understand, not the Bear, but the Hyceua. 

 ' Ann. d. Sc. Xaturelles 2°"= ser. Zoologie, torn. vii. p. 216 (1837): "Note sur une breche osseuse situoe 

 cntro Oran et Mers-el-Kebir." 



