44 



A SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE ON THE BONES DIS- 

 COVERED IN MAKING THE SECTIONS, OF THE 

 ISLAND OF LLANGORSE. 



By henry DUMBLETON, Esq. 



The sections made to show the stratum of the Island on Llangorse Lake, or 

 Llyn Savathan, proved clearly its artificial origin. Several holes were sunk in 

 different parts of the Island, and in one of these, at the north-east angle of the 

 Island, bones were found very plentifully at all depths above the peat. Some of 

 these bones were sent to Professor Kolleston, of Oxford, who recognised amongst 

 them bones of a small and large horse, and bones of small species of the hog, the 

 sheep, and the ox. Another set of the bones found were exhibited, you may 

 remember, at the British Association at Exeter, in 1869, and amongst them Mr. 

 Boyd Dawkins recognised those of the red deer, wild boar, and Bos longifrona. 

 Mr. Dawkins was of opinion that the group altogether from the greater propor- 

 tion of wild than domestic animals, indicated a remote period of deposition. 

 These conclusions were stated in the papers, I had the honour to read it before 

 the Club at Llangorse, but since this time Professor Owen has been kind enough 

 to examine a series of the bones found there, and in a letter dated December 4th 

 1871, he states,— 



" There are the remains of the hog, and those of the Bos agree best, 

 vi\i\i Bos longifrons. The recent date of the collection would be no bar to 

 that species having contributed to the food of the lake dwellers. Since the 

 period when evidence was given of the probability of the "Welsh Bunts as wtll 

 as the Highland Kyloes, being domeslieated descendants of that small 8boiiL,iral 

 British Bovrne (History of British Fossil Mammals, 8 vo., 1SC4, p. SCO), corro- 

 borative evidence has been obtained, and Mr. Boyd Dawkins communicates in 

 the last number of the Proceedings of the Manchester Philosophical Society, his 

 conviction of the same derivation of our small short-horned mountain cattle. 

 Amongst the detached teeth I have detected the lower molar of a small ass, or 

 an equine of that size." 



These several reports confirm each other, and doubtless correctly represent 

 the character of the bones found. The fact, however, of the domestication of the 

 Bos longifrons having been admitted, renders very uncertain the age of the 

 deposit at the Island of Llangorse Lake. 



