Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 27.djvu/554

408 on the fang much more obliquely, and by the obtusely pointed apex rising abruptly from the anterior border instead of sweeping nearly equally upwards from the posterior and anterior borders. The premolar series of the Glutton may be separated from that of the Canidæ and Felidæ by the great transverse thickness of its teeth, and the absence of the anterior and posterior accessory cusps. The first lower true molar is distinguished at once from that of the Canidæ by the stoutness and obtuseness of the two sectorial blades, and by the non-development of a cusp on the postero-inner edge of the base of the posterior blade. The tubercular portion also of the Glutton is much smaller and more talon-like (consisting of a very obtuse triangular cusp) than in any of the Canidæ. With these exceptions, I do not know of the teeth of any carnivore with which those of the Glutton under consideration can be confounded.

The following Table shows the relation of the lower jaw of the Glutton from Plas Heaton to those found in the caves of Germany, and to a recent specimen preserved in the British Museum. The Welsh fossil in every dimension is larger than any of the rest, and must have belonged to an animal proportionally more robust than any of the others. The measurements are taken in decimals of an inch.

I am able to detect no specific difference between the Gulo spelæus of Goldfuss, from Germany, and the living form, Gulo luscus of Linnæus. The fossil carnivore was larger than the living, probably because in pleistocene times the competition for life was not so keen as it is now among the mammalia. Man in those early times had