

r891.] Geology and Paleontology. 
General Notes. 

GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY. 
The Californian Cave Bear.—In the NATURALIST for 1879, 
page 791, I described a species of bear, previously unknown, which was 
represented in my collection by a nearly complete skull. The speci- 
men was found in a cave in Shasta county, California, and was in 
excellent preservation at the time of its discovery, but it had suffered 
from the ill usage of curious persons. The rami of the lower jaw 
had been given away and lost, the zygomata had been chopped off, and 
the canine teeth broken away. The remaining cranium is, however, a 
fine specimen, and was originally partially covered by stalagmite. A 
large part of this has been removed, enough being left to demonstrate 
its geological position. 
The species was named Arctotherium simum Cope. It possesses 
several points of interest. In the first place it is nearly related to the 
bear of the Pampean epoch of South America, Arctotherium bonerense 
Gervais, which is found in Argentine in association with the remains 
of gigantic sloth Toxodonts, Glyptodonts, etc. It differs from its 
-Pampean ally in several important respects. The muzzle resembles 
that of the latter in its extreme brevity, so that both alike were “ pug- 
nosed,’’ in great contrast to the existing bears. The relative propor- 
tions of the remainder of the skull are markedly different in the two 
species, being more elongate in the 4. simum than in the A. bonerense. 
The penultimate premolar, as in the latter, is two-rooted, but it stands 
in line with the dental series, and not oblique to it and overlapping 
the other premolars, as in A. donerense, a character which results from — 
the greater abbreviation of this part of the maxillary region in a 
latter species. There isalso a large median third incisive e foramen 
the Califurnian species, which is wanting or very small in the rrie 
As compared with the species of true bear (genus Ursus) the Cate: 6 
fornian cave bear presents many peculiarities apart from the characters 
_which distinguish the genus Arctotherium. While the proportions of 
_ the posterior part of the skull are much as in the true Ursi, the anterior 
= _— is much — and wider. The palate and forehead are half — 
again as A U.i horribilis), t 



