538 
REPORT ON THE EXPLORATION OF BRIXHAM CAVE. 
and in the middle libs having a deep fossa on the dorsal aspect, between the angle and 
the tubercle. Except in their size, these fragments of ribs bear a close resemblance to 
those of the Hare or Beaver. 
2. With respect to the general condition of the ursine bones, little remains to be 
added to what has already been noticed in the preceding observations. In general terms 
it may be remarked that, with the exception of the instances in which the bones were 
found on or close below the stalagmitic floor or on the surface of the third bed, they 
are more or less dendritic ; and in the great majority of cases they present the same 
characters of extreme antiquity as are shown in the bones of Hyaena , Rhinoceros , &c. 
It would appear, therefore, from this circumstance, as well as from the positions in 
which the ursine remains occurred, that they belong to all periods of the Cavern’s history, 
from the earliest to nearly the most recent. 
Many among the bones present marks of their having been gnawed, but the condition 
of a great many (and this is especially the case with those of the very young individuals) 
plainly shows that they were tranquilly deposited in or not far from the sites in which 
they were found. There can, in fact, be little doubt that amongst the Bear’s relics, as 
with those of the Hysena, some at least must have belonged to animals which habitually 
used the cavern as a place of refuge, and especially perhaps at the time of parturition 
and when they were nursing their young. 
With respect to size and other particulars, the bones, as already observed, exhibit the 
extreme diversity which characterizes ursine remains in all situations, and which is as 
manifest in the bones of the larger existing species as it is among those of their fossil 
representatives. But, besides size, close scrutiny will detect in some of the bones certain 
differences, which must, I think, be regarded as indicative of more than mere sexual or 
individual peculiarity. Amongst the osteological characters which have been most 
generally looked for in the discrimination of fossil Bears, the size and form of the 
cranium and lower jaw have been more especially relied upon. The Brixham Collection 
affords no evidence of the former kind, and not much of the latter. With respect to 
the cranium, its form and size in existing species varies so extremely, not only between 
different races of the same species, but also between the sexes, that I am not inclined to 
place any very great importance upon it. As regards the lower jaw, however, the case 
is different. The greater convexity of the “inferior contour of the ramus” has been 
noticed as characteristic of U. spelmts by Professor Owen and other palaeontologists, and 
it was regarded as of great value by Dr. Falconer among others. It appears to be a 
pretty constant character even in the oldest jaws; but it should not be forgotten that in 
other species the inferior contour is much more convex in the young jaw before the 
teeth are fully out than it afterwards becomes. The length of the diasteme is a second 
point often referred to ; but this depends so much upon age and upon the proportionate 
size of the jaw itself, as compared with the teeth, as not, I think, to be of much import- 
ance. The presence of any of the small premolars is excessively rare in U. spelceus , whilst 
in U. prisons, Cuv. ( fossilis , Goldf.), and U. arctos one or more of them, though never all 
