10 GEOLOGICAL MEiMOLRS. 



The spongy bones, such as the yertebrte and ribs, were very rare. 

 Their condition seems to indicate that the men to whom they be- 

 longed had been eaten for food. The pottery bore an ornament of 

 continuous lines, or of rows of dots. The associated animals consist 

 of the bat, the wolf, the fox, and a species of Cams, the wild cat, the 

 dormouse, the rabbit, the horse, deer, and the sheep, or goat. This 

 assemblage of the remains of different animals associated with the 

 traces of man's handiwork is accounted for by the author on the sup- 

 position that the caye had been used as a burial-place by a tribe of 

 cannibals, who slaughtered their slayes and prisoners, and who buiied 

 the relics of their funereal feasts with the ashes of the dead, and with 

 the implements that he was to use in a world of spirits. 



The author exj)lored also two other cayerns in the neighbourhood, 

 that of Lapa Furada, and of the Coya da IToura ; both farnished re- 

 mains analogous to those of the upper deposit of the Casa da ^oura. 

 From Lapa Furada he obtained a fragment of a lower jaw, which 

 he refers to the Ursns arctos. [^^ B. D.] 



On a Species of Felis, of FEsrs, and of EHEs^ocEEOSj/rowi a Boxe- 

 CAyE in tJie llAEimiE Alps. By IE. E. Laetet. 



[Sult deux tetes de Carnassiers Fossiles ( TJi'sus et Felis), et sur quelques debris 

 de Eliinoceros. provenant des decourertes faites jjar M. Bourguignat dans les 

 carernes du Midi de la France. Par M. Ed. Lartet. A mi ales des Sciences na- 

 turelles, 5^ serie, tome viii. p. 157, pi. ix.] 



The well-known researches of M. Bourguignat in 1866 haye far- 

 nished ]y^. Lartet with the subject matter of this most important essay. 

 There were associated in the Cayern of IMars, situated eight kilo- 

 metres from Tance, the skull of a bear, that of a Hon, the remains 

 of rhinoceros, Sus, Lejpus, and two species of deer. 



Ursus Bourgv.ignati (Lartet). — The bear s skull differs remarkably 

 from all the liying members of the genus, except the Ursus man- 

 timus, and from all the fossil ones, with the exception of the Ursus 

 2'>r{scus of Goldfuss and the Ursus planifrons of ITr. Denny. From 

 these three also it is separated by points of difference, which 

 M. Lartet belieyes to be of specific yalue. In the U. Bourgulgnati, 

 the palate is much narrower than in U. priscus. The two series 

 of molar teeth do not conyerge so much ; and their number is six 

 on each side, on account of the persistence of the two small simple 

 premolars, of which one is situated in front of premolar 4, and 

 the other immediately behind the canine. In other respects there 

 is the same dental arrangement as in U. priscus, except that the 

 diastema between the two small premolars is greater. The carnassial, 

 or premolar 4, has its antero- external lobe higher and its internal 

 talon is less deyeloped. The differences between the true molars 

 are less strongly marked, and therefore more difficult to determine. 

 A comparison with Ursus planfrons shows that the palate of that 

 animal is proportionally much wider than in the French species. 

 Nothing can be predicated of the form of the teeth, because they are 

 aU wanting in the former skull. In the polar bear the palate is 

 narrower than in the French species, the two rows of molars haye 

 the same numerical formula (but instead of conyerging in front, as 



