UKSUS (hY^NARCTOS) SIVALENSIS. 325 



molar is oblong. It is broader for its length than generally 

 holds in the genus, and the crown is less complicated with 

 tubercles. Of the rear tubercular the socket alone remains, 

 the tooth having fallen out. It is situated with considerable 

 obliquity to the rest of the series in the root of the ascend- 

 ing portion of the ramus. The alveolus is inconsiderable, 

 and the tooth appears to have been comparatively small. 

 The teeth in the fossil appear to have been thus : incisors, 



3 + 3 . 1 + 1 n -1 1 2 + 2 -IT,,! 3 + 3. 



g^ : canuies, ^^ : lalse molars, g-j^g : cheek teeth, g-^ : m 



all, 38. 



The size and form of the head bear out the specific distinc- 

 tion established by the teeth. No Bear, fossil or recent, 

 attains the enormous size of our fossil, except the Ursus 

 spelceus, and the absence of any bulge in the forehead above 

 the orbits at once distinguishes it from the latter. The 

 mutilation of the cranium at the occiput prevents an exact 

 comparison of the length with that of the Ursus spelwus. In 

 the tables of the 'Ossemens Fossiles,'' an adult specimen of the 

 latter measiu'es 17 '9 inches from the incisors to the occipital 

 crest. The fossil cranium, although mutilated at the occiput, 

 measures 1 7 inches ; with the deficient portion restored, it 

 would probably measure 19 inches. The facial half of the 

 head, fi-om the post-orbital processes to the incisors, mea- 

 sures 9*3 inches ; and in almost all the Bears the cranial 

 portion is long'er than the facial. Supposing this proportion 

 to hold in our fossil, the head would be more than 19 inches, 

 and would exceed that of the Ursus speloeus. 



The form of the cranium in profile is shown in fig*. 1. The 

 most striking feature is the almost rectilinear outline, and 

 absence of any notable curvature. From along the nasals to 

 between the infra-orbital processes is almost a straight line. 

 There is but a trifling degree of convexity from that back- 

 wards ; and the sagittal crest rises in a very prominent ridge 

 above the parietals. No species of Bear has so straight a 

 cranium. The Ursus spelwus is chiefly characterized by a 

 bulge of the forehead above the root of the nasals. The only 

 species which at all approaches the fossil in profile is the white 

 Polar Bear, Ursus maritimus? But besides the great differ- 

 ence of size, the latter has nothing of the salient sagittal 

 crest, which is so prominent in the fossil ; all the other Bears 

 have more or less convexity of profile. 



Exchisive, therefore, of the teeth, the size and cranial out- 

 line would sufiice to establish the fossil as a distinct species. 

 The other peculiarities of the head are three. The frontal 



' Tom. iv. p. 359. ^ Ossemens Fossiles, tom iv. PI. xxi. fig. 4. 



