oj the lios priiuigcnius. 47 



ffenius, and distinct from the Bison prisctts, or great Lithuanian 

 Bison, which still inhabits the forests of that country, existed 

 during and did not become extinct till towards the middle of 

 the sixteenth centuiy. In addition it may be stated, that at the 

 period when the Roman legions first penetrated the forests of 

 Germany, two huge species of oxen are recorded to have been 

 met with, and from the accurate and circumstantial description 

 given by Caesar and other Roman authors of these two animals, 

 there can be httle or no doubt but that the species now extinct 

 and agreeing in its osseous characters with the Bos primiyenius, 

 and the great Aurochs or Bison priscus of Lithuania, were the 

 animals so described. In Britain, where the remains of the Bos 

 primigenius and also of the Bison priscus are found in the older 

 and more recent deposits, as no mention of them is made by the 

 Romans, it is presumed that they had become extinct before the 

 invasion of that nation; but that I may not trespass too far 

 upon your patience, I refer you to Mr. Owen's interesting volume 

 for further particulars in regard to these two Bovine animals and 

 the various localities in which their respective remains have been 

 found in Britain. 



From the Bison or Aurochs the genus Bos is distinguished 

 by important characters of its osseous frame, among which the 

 form of the skull and position of the horns are eminently pro- 

 minent. In the Bison the forehead, instead of being flat or 

 rather concave, as in Bos primigeniuSy is rounded or convex ; the 

 horns again of Bos are attached to the extremity of the highest 

 salient angle of the head, viz. that which separates the forehead 

 from the occiput, whereas in the Bison or Aurochs, this line is 

 two inches behind the root of the horns. An inspection of the 

 bones now exhibited shows that the former has been the posi- 

 tion of this animal's horns, and also that the portion of the 

 frontal bone which still remains, indicates a flatness or concavity 

 of that part of the head ; the form of the core of the horn which 

 still remains is also similar to that described and figured in the 

 works already mentioned, though a surmise only can be made 

 as to the probable length of the entire horn. The circumference 

 of the root of the horn-core is almost exactly the same as that 

 given by Nilsson of a specimen at Lund, being 1 foot 2\ inches 

 in girth. Some of the British specimens mentioned by Owen 

 seem to have been of still larger dimensions. With other conti- 

 nental as well as British species of fossil or extinct bovine ani- 

 mals these remains cannot be confounded, the Bos longifrons, 

 whose fossil remains have been found also in Britain, having 

 been an animal greatly inferior in size, with comparatively small, 

 short, and differently curved horns ; and the Bos frontosus of 

 Nilsson, a Scandinavian fossil species, is described as having 



