on some fossil Bones. 441 
among themselves, I cannot say ; the heads differ in shape 
from each other ; they are, upon the whole, much longer for 
their breadth than in any carnivorous animal I know of ; they 
also differ from the present white bear, which, as far as I have 
seen, has a common proportional breadth ; it is supposed, indeed , 
that the heads of the present white bear differ from one ano- 
ther, but the truth of this assertion I have not seen heads 
enough of that animal to determine. 
The heads not only vary in shape, but also in size, for some 
of them, when compared with the recent white bear, would seem 
to have belonged to an animal twice its size, while some of the 
bones correspond in size with those of the white bear, and 
others are even smaller. * 
There are two ossa humeri, rather of a less size than those of 
the recent white bear ; a first vertebra, rather smaller ; the teeth 
also vary considerably in size, yet they are all those of the same 
tribe ; so that the variety among themselves is not less than be- 
tween them and the recent. In the formation of the head, age 
makes a considerable difference ; the skull of a youngdogis much 
more rounded than an old one, the ridge leading back to the 
occiput, terminating in the two lateral ones, hardly exists in a 
young dog; and among the present bones there is the back part 
of such a head, yet it is larger than the head of the largest mas- 
tiff ; how far the young white bear may vary from the old, simi- 
lar to the young dog, I do not know, but it is very probable. 
Drawings of the different heads and ossa humeri, done in a very 
* It is to be understood, that the bones of the white bear that I have, belonged to 
one that had been a show, and had not grown to the full or natural size; and I make 
allowance for this in my assertion, that the heads of those incrusted appear to belong t® 
an animal twice the size of our white bear. 
3G 2 
