FOSSIL BONES IN CAVERNS IN GERMANY. OQ*f 



of the lion kind, and fee adds, that s « these bones are not 

 precisely similar to those of the present lion." 



In the menu time he gives us, without being aware of it, 

 three bones of this genus, which he has suffered to slip iu 

 among those of the bear : namely the semilunar scaphoid, 

 the cuboid of the hii.d foot, and the first cuneiform. But 

 if these figures be of the natural size, the animal must have 

 been of prodigious dimensions, which the other bones that I 

 have examined do not indicate. 



Indeed I have myself some new pieces to produce both 

 from Gaylenreuth and other places. First single teeth. A 

 second and third upper grinder of a felis : both from Gaylen- 

 reuth. Another from the cavern of Altenstein, with the 

 drawing of which I was furnished by the celebrated Blu- 

 menbaeh. These teeth differ completely from those of the 

 hyena. 



I have likewise half a lower jaw from the collection of 

 Mr. Hadrian Camper. It is that of a felis. The posterior 

 tooth bilobated and without a heel, the vacuity before the 

 alveolus of the last but one, the direction of the lower edge, 

 and the situation of the maxillary foramina, leave no room 

 to doubt of it. 



But when the question is, to what species of felis does Probably be- , 

 this half jaw come the nearest? the answer is not so easv. l " SvC ,0 * 

 I will venture to say, that it is impossible without the nu- 

 merous means of comparison, which I was so fortunate as to 

 have in my power. Now these means have demonstrated 

 to me, as they will to any one who shall employ them, that 

 this bone belonged neither to a lion, nor lionness, nor tiger; 

 still less to a leopard, or the little panther of the keepers of 

 wild beasts : but that, if we must refer it to a living species, 

 it can only be to the jaguar, or great spotted panther of 

 South Ameriea, which it most resembles, particularly in the 

 curve of its lower edge. 



The most accurate ideas we have hitherto of the different 

 large animals of the genus felis will perhaps occasion a. 

 doubt of this: but the characters of these animals and their 

 osteology will be the subject of a separate dissertation, that 

 will remove all the difficulties-. 



3. The 



