COMPARISON OF THE BONES BELONGING TO OXEN. 209 



belonged to a wild or domesticated animal, we must be guided 

 by the following considerations : the number of individuals 



\t <^j 



represented ; the relative proportions of young and old ; the 

 absence or presence of very old individuals, at least in the 

 case of species that serve for food ; the traces of long, though 

 indirect, selection, in diminishing the size of any natural 

 weapons which might be injurious to man; the direct action 

 of man during the life of the animal ; and, finally, the texture 

 and condition of the bones. 



Applying these considerations to the Sus palustris from 

 Moosseedorf, Prof. Kiitirneyer concludes that there is no 

 evidence that any of them belonged to domesticated speci- 

 mens. 



Prof. Eiitimeyer has also paid great attention to the texture 

 and condition of the bones themselves, and believes that he 

 can, in many cases, from these alone distinguish the species, 

 and even determine whether the bone belonged to a wild or 

 a domesticated animal. 



In wild animals the bones are of a firmer and closer tex- 

 ture ; there is an indescribable, but to the accustomed eye 

 very characteristic, sculpturing of the external surface, pro- 

 duced by the sharper and more numerous impressions of 

 vessels, and the greater roughness of the surfaces for the 

 attachment of muscles. There is also an exaggeration of all 

 projections and ridges, and a diminution of all indifferent 

 surfaces. The contrast thus produced will be seen from 

 figs. 169 and 170, the first of which represents a portion of a 

 vertebra belonging to a domestic cow, the second the corre- 

 sponding surface of the same bone from the bison. In con- 

 sidering the remains of oxen, these distinctions have proved 

 of the greatest importance. By their assistance Prof. Rliti- 

 meyer has convinced himself that, besides the two wild species 

 of bos, namely, the urus (B. primigenius) and the aurochs 



p 



