260 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



3. At the time of the Roman Conquest the Gigantic Ox. Bos 



primigenius, was extinct in Britain, while the Celts had 

 domesticated the Bos longifro7is — the Celtic Shorthorn, 



4. This animal was utilised and consumed both by the Celts 



and Romans. 



5. The Romans, for drausjht and ploughing, preferred dark- 



coloured oxen. For religious rites and ceremonies, 

 public and private, white oxen were necessary. 



6. These white oxen were to be found in various provinces and 



colonies of ancient Rome as domesticated breeds, and 

 the descendants of these cattle are to be found within 

 the same areas to-day practically unchanged, when we 

 compare them with the representations of their ancestors 

 on wall-paintings, sculptures, coins, and gems. 



7. That such cattle, carrying with them the prestige of sacrificial 



animak (Fig. 27), admired, 

 selected and preserved, 

 were brought into Britain, 

 we know from the Ptoman 

 middens. Their size and 

 the erect lyre - shaped 

 form of tlieir horns, when 

 compared with the native 

 Celtic Shorthorn, admit 

 of no mistake. 



<t< 'M v^ »r'«^f73 v's 



Fig. 27. — Suovetaurilia 



(the triple sacrifice of bull, sheep, and pig). 



(Relief in the Louvre.) 



This is the point we have reached in our argument, but we can 

 safely take two steps further. The middens, at long-established 

 Roman stations, show us that a new breed had been effected by 

 crossing the Roman imported cattle with the native Celtic Short- 

 horn. The result was, according to Professor Hughes, a larger 

 animal, and, as already mentioned, with horn cores which were 

 neither that of the native breed nor that of the imported race. What 

 the colour of this cross was we cannot definitely say, but suppose 

 from the known prepotency of the Roman breed that it would be 

 white. At the same time, the Roman breed and the cross formed 

 a very small part of the cattle population of the country. We 

 may fairly assume, I think, that the large white breeds of cattle 

 which came from the Roman province lying at the south-eastern 

 corner of Europe, into Rome itself, also found their way into Britain 



