A BONE CAVE AT WALTON, NEAR CLEVEDON. 
185 
specimens of the tibia, humerus, and radius were obtained, together 
with numerous teeth, vertebrae, and bones of the manus and pes. 
An associated series of cervical vertebrae, and two associated sets of 
bones of one of the extremities were found. The dimensions of the 
bones indicates considerably smaller individuals than in most of the 
modern breeds of horses. The teeth were in all stages of wear, 
from examples which had not cut the gums to examples worn down 
to the roots. The best preserved femur has a maximum length of 
25 '5 centimetres, and the best preserved tibia of 30 centimetres. 
Carnivora. 
Bear Ursus arctos. 
About 150 bones of bears v/ere collected and identitied for the 
Bristol Museum. These included three nearly perfect left femora, 
four perfect tibiae, several broken but large humeri, one belonging to 
Dr. Male having a maximum diameter across the distal end of as 
much as 15-45 centimetres ; the corresponding measurement of the 
largest humerus in the Taunton Museum is 16-8 centimetres. The 
maximum length of the best preserved femur in the Bristol Museum 
collection is 44 centimetres, as compared with 52-5 centimetres in 
the case of the largest at Taunton ; the largest tibia from the Bristol 
series measures 34-8 centimetres, as compared with 36-5 centimetres, 
the length of the largest of the Taunton specimens. The large 
Taunton specimens referred to above were found in the Banwell 
cave. Many detached teeth were found in various stages of wear, 
and several more or less well preserved mandibular rami. One of 
these, belonging to Mr. G. E. Male, is of a very aged individual 
which had not merely lost p.m. 4 and m. 1, but had the alveoli of 
these comparatively large teeth completely closed up ; on the 
other hand it is noteworthy that the alveolus for the small tooth 
p.m. 1 is present, and there are traces also of that for p.m. 2. 
In aged individuals both these teeth are often lost, and their 
alveoli are closed up. A jaw belonging to the Bristol Museum 
retains the alveolus for p.m. 1, but shows no trace of the alveoli for 
p.m. 2 and 3. No examples were met with showing unworn crowns 
of p.m. 1 and m. 1 — the most useful teeth for deciding whether a 
particular specimen should be attributed to Ursus spelcBus or Uvsus 
arctos, but the retention of p.m. 1 points to the probability of the 
specimens belonging to the latter species. 
By far the most noteworthy feature of the Bear’s bones is their 
remarkably diseased character. Dr. Male sent some bones to Mr. 
S. G. Shattock, of the Royal College of Surgeons, who replied “ I 
should regard the disease shown by the pieces of the spinal column 
of the Bears as a very pronounced form of osteo-arthritis affecting 
the costal articulations and heads of the ribs. The amount of 
destruction is unusual, but in animals this is at times a marked 
feature as shown by the bones in the College collection.” This 
peculiarity is shown not merely by the vertebrae, but by most of 
the phalangeal bones, and occasionally by the limb-bones, as in the 
a2 
