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 longifrons—the Celtic Shorthorn, 
4. This animal was utilised and consumed both by the Celts 
and Romans. 
5. The Romans, for draught 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 
animals (Fig. 27), admired, 
selected and _ preserved, 
were brought into Britain, 
we know trom the Roman 
middens. Their size and 
the erect lyre-shaped 
form of their horns, when 
Fig. 27.—Suovetaurilia compared with the native 
(the triple sacrifice of bull, sheep, and pig). Gale 1Shorthoes 
(Relief in the Louvre.) a 

admit 
of no mistake. 
This is the point we have reached in our argument, but we ean 
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 oi cattle 
which came from the Roman province lying at the south-eastern 
corner of Europe, into Rome itself, also found their way into Britain 
