H. Woodward — Visit to the Brussels Museum. 197 



No less than twenty-five caves were explored, and their contents 

 gathered together, both human and animal, and arranged with that 

 accuracy and precision, both as to locality and anatomical details, 

 which characterize all M. Dupont's scientific labours. 



Human remains and thousands of flint implements, the greater 

 part of the skeleton of Fells spelcea, remains of Felts lynx, Ursus 

 spelceus, Ursus priscus, Ursus arctos, Cervus tarandus, C. Guettardi 

 (? young of G. tarandus), BMnoceros tichorliinus, vast numbers of 

 horses, and numerous other animals, — these specimens, which occu- 

 pied several years in collection, are now, under M. Dupont's direction, 

 being mounted and prepared for exhibition, and for the convenience 

 of the man of science and the comparative anatomist. 



Some items deserve special attention : — 



Of Ursus spelceus I saw twenty-two skulls ; an entire skeleton of 

 an adult individual ; an adult pub (three feet long) ; a sucking cub ; 

 and lastly, a foetus, — all of true U. spelceus. 



M. Dupont has made some interesting observations as to how to 

 distinguish the three species of bears, which I have tested since my 

 return by typical specimens in the British Museum, and found his 

 rule to hold good. 



He asserts that out of the long series of remains of Z7. spelceus, 

 not one possesses a false molar (= premolar) in the upper jaw. 



Ursus arctos (found in the Cavern of Chaleux) has only one false 

 molar (= p.m.*) in the upper jaw. 



Ursus priscus (the true species) has two false molars (namely, 

 = p.m.^ and p.m.*) in the upper jaw. 



This last is asserted by Prof. Busk to be undistinguishable from 

 Ursus ferox} 



M. Dupont also observed that U. spelceus has a wider zygomatic 

 arch, and is shorter and broader than Schmerling's species. 



A good character in U. spelceus also is the great size of the last 

 upper true molar, which in this species is one and a half times as 

 large as in either of the other two. 



A typical specimen of U. arctos, from the Manea Fen, Cambridge 

 (referred to by Prof. Owen in his " British Fossil Mammals," 

 p 105), and preserved in the British Museum, has the one p. m. * 

 and no other. An Irish specimen from King's County and the cast 

 of another from the County of Longford, stated to belong to the true 

 U. arctos, agree exactly in all their proportions with the type speci- 

 men of Goldfuss's Ursus priscus (from Soemmering's collection), 

 from the Cavern of Gailenreuth; they, moreover, have the two false 

 molars (p.m.' and p.m.*). As it is decided by Prof. Busk, who has 

 given so much careful study to the Ursine species, that U priscus is 

 undistinguishable from U. ferox, it seems most reasonable to con- 

 clude that these Irish skulls belonged to the grisly bear of Northern 

 Europe, and not to the Ursus arctos at all. 



' See abstract of Prof. Busk's paper, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, 1867, vol. xxiii., p. 

 342, and Geol. Mag., 1867, Vol. IV., p. 418. It is much to be regretted that this 

 important paper has not yet appeared in full, as it contained much valuable information, 

 and was the result of long and careful study of the Eears. 



