URSUS.
Two species of fossil bears have been discovered, both of them distinct from the existing ones. They are dis tinguished by the titles Spelxus and ArctoidcuF. The first is about the size of a horse, and the second is consi derably less. They occur in limestone caves in Germany and in Hungary. Those of Germany, which we had oc casion to mention elsewhere, are found at Gayleni.euth, on the frontiers of Bayreuth in Franconia. We have re ferred for a particular description of this sort of locality to this place.
The countries in which these have been observed are said to he more than 600 miles asunder; and in all the caves, wherever found, the same animals occur. From Esper, who examined those of Bayreuth particularly, we learn, that in one of these, which was about forty feet in length and breadth, and about thirty in height, he found such a quantity of bones and teeth, intermixed with earth containing much animal matter, that he did not succeed in digging to the bottom of the deposit. He computed that many cart-loads were contained in this place. It is further remarkable that this cavity lay at the end of a long range of caves and passages, of no great breadth.
It is hence apparent, that those are not transported bones, as we have observed in another place; and it admits of no doubt that, whether these animals inhabited those places when living or not, they had retired to them to die. This latter must, indeed, be the truth, as otherwise only one species would be found in the same place; whereas, in the same caves, in many places, there have been found the remains of many different animals, such as bears, hyenas, lions or tigers, dugs or wolves, foxes, pole-cats, and rhinoceroses. It has been said by Cuvier, that the latter animal never occurred in caves; but they have been found so in our own country, as we have elsewhere notic ed. The same naturalist has also said that three-fourths
of these bones belong to bears; half, or more, of the re mainder belonging to a fossil hyxna, and the remainder to the other animals.
It does not appear difficult to account for these deposits, of which two, as we have elsewhere mentioned, occur in our own namely, one at Plymouth, and the other in Yorkshire. It is common to all wild animals, when sen sible of the approach of death, to conceal themselves in various ways; and, we never find them dead in our fields even in our own country. There are hut few, it is true, respecting which we can make this observation in our own island ; but with respect to foxes, pole-cats, hares, rabbits, otters, badgers, Scc. the fact is well known to all sportsmen Of rats, it is proverbial. One species of field mouse is the only animal which we know that chooses an open road, if possible, to die in. The same is true of birds, and even of the greater number of insects.
The animals found in the assures of rocks, as at Gib raltar and elsewhere, seem to have been deposited there from the same causes or motives; and if they are involved in breccias or in stalactites, it is on account of the calcare ous nature of the rocks, and of the perpetual formation of these substances that is going on. In the caves of Bayreuth the bones arc often involved in the stalactites. They are detached and broken. As to their chemical properties, they are not mineralized, farther, at least, than being occasionally incrusted ; they are lighter than in the natural state, having lost much of their animal matter, but they often still contain a portion of their original gela tine.