REPORT OX THE EXPLORATION OF BBIXHAM CAVE. 
533 
The mean level at which the hones were deposited in the Reindeer Gallery was 
about 28, and in the Flint-knife Gallery about 32 inches, whilst in the West Chamber 
they occurred, as would seem to have been the case with all the bones found there, at a 
much greater depth, or at about 110 inches. The mean horizon, therefore, of Ursus 
appears to have been about the same as that of the Reindeer, and a few inches above 
that of the Hyaena. It is also to be remarked that, as compared with the latter animal, 
a much larger proportion of its remains were found lying on or near the surface of the 
third bed, or even imbedded in the stalagmite itself. 
Another remarkable circumstance connected with the ursine remains, and which has 
already been alluded to, is the number of instances in which bones obviously belonging 
to the skeleton of the same animal were found collected together in one spot. 
Amongst the most remarkable of these collections may be mentioned one which, 
though not recorded in the “ Register,” was found, as we are informed by Mr. Pengelly, 
“ on the 29th July, 1858, upwards of 2 feet deep in the third bed, immediately north of 
the junction of the Reindeer and Flint-knife Galleries, in a small recess in the west wall 
of the former, and about 62 feet from the entrance, at a spot where the overlying 
stalagmite was about 4 inches thick.” The bones in question, so far as they are 
exposed, include an entire left femur, the corresponding tibia lying in the natural pos- 
ture it would assume in extreme flexion of the knee, and having the entire astragalus 
articulated to it in the natural position. Close beside these leg-bones, and in fact 
partly overlapping the astragalus, is the left radius ; and attached to the specimen, when 
it first came under my notice, was the detached lower articular end of the same radius, 
with the scapho-lunar fossette entire. In a “ Report of Progress in the Brixham Cave” 
drawn up by Dr. Falconer in Sept. 1858*, this specimen is described as a “superb 
specimen of the bones of left hind leg, comprising the femur, tibia, and fibula folded 
together, with the patella and astragalus in situ.” “ These were found,” the Report 
goes on to say, “ near the Ebur chasm, and the other parts of the skeleton may be 
looked for when that portion of the cavern is dug up.” And in a note given in p. 495 
of the ‘Palaeontological Memoirs,’ dated May 1863, Dr. Falconer states that “all the 
circumstances connected with the entire leg of Cave-Bear (femur with tibia and fibula 
folded together, and ball of astragalus partly dislocated), and its position in commi- 
nuted shale, below the ochreous cave-earth and above a well-defined flint implement, 
were determined by me at Torquay and Brixham on September 2. I identified the 
remains and the flint, and drew the inference that the leg must have been introduced, 
with its ligaments at least fresh, after the flint had been introduced into the lower cave- 
deposit.” 
Subsequent examination, however, of this collection of bones, after the removal of 
the matrix in which they were imbedded, has shown that Dr. Falconer was, to some 
extent, misled as to the true state of the case. The bone which, when very partially 
uncovered, he naturally took to be fibula, proves, when fully disclosed, to be the radius ; 
* Ante, p. 476. 
