﻿22 PLEISTOCENE MAMMALIA. 



parts of large Peles from the Somerset caves, that there occur metatarsals which, both in 

 size and form, so exactly resemble those of the recent lion, that they cannot be distin- 

 guished from them. (We have observed, however, a tendency in those of the tiger to a 

 greater proportional development in the antero-posterior direction of the proximal articu- 

 lation, which appears generally to distinguish the metatarsals of that animal from the 

 other two large feline animals.) But in all the Pleistocene deposits there occur, 

 but not numerously, except in the Somerset caves, bones of larger size. The set which 

 we have figured evidently belonged to the same animal, though metatarsal 3 is reversed 

 from the left paw. They were found by Mr. Beard, with many other parts of the same 

 skeleton, in Sandford Hill Cave, in the Mendip, and are now in the Taunton collection. 

 Some larger specimens from Crayford, in the valley of the Thames, are figured in PI. 

 VIII. They belong to Dr. Spurrel, and are nearly, if not quite, equal to the largest 

 German specimens. They differ from those we have figured in PI. V by having the 

 distal articulations comparatively much smaller, as well as by their tapering more and 

 being more bent. We have observed similar variations in some of the cave specimens, as 

 well as in the metatarsals of recent lions and tigers. 



Metatarsal 2, fig. 2. 



The shaft of the second metatarsal is somewhat triangular in section, the sides being 

 flatter towards the proximal and becoming more convex towards the distal articulation, 

 so that the bone then becomes almost cylindrical. The shaft is slightly curved backwards, 

 the outer boundary, or that facing metatarsal 3, being nearly straight, and the inner, or 

 that facing metatarsal 1, being curved slightly inwards, so that the bone appears to bend 

 slightly in that direction. 



The proximal articulation for the mesocuneiform (fig. 2, a, h) is nearly at right angles 

 to the axis of the bone. It forms a roughly triangular surface, of slightly double curvature 

 from front to back, where it ends in a small spur, curving sharply upwards (6, fig. 2). 

 The surface is concave, in a transverse direction. 



The point of contact with metatarsal 1 can hardly be called an articulation ; it is 

 slightly smoothed, and is supported by a small process (c, fig. 2), a short distance below 

 the proximal articulation, on the inner front edge of the bone. 



The ectocuneiform articulations, together with those for the third metatarsal, form two 

 very slightly concave oval surfaces at right angles to the proximal articulation, and con- 

 tinuous in direction with the outer surface of the bone. Each of these surfaces is divided 

 by an horizontal ridge, very slightly marked ; the upper part of each belongs to the ecto- 

 cuneiform, the lower to the third metatarsal. The anterior edge of the anterior of these is 

 bent outwards, so that the front of the bone presents the angular projection (fig. 2, d, e), 

 and when the metatarsals are applied to each other the point d rests on the point 

 a (fig. 3). 



