259 
Mote on Bos DLongifrons.* 
HE fragment of bone, the subject of this note, was 
turned up in February, 1896, in the course of 
excavations for building purposes in Bass & Co’s. Middle 
Yard. It was resting on a bed of clay about g feet below 
the surface; immediately above it was a bed of peat about 
24 feet thick, then 2 feet of blue clay, above which was 
principally made ground. There was evidence of an old 
river course having existed here. An old oak tree in good 
preservation and perfectly black was found in the peat, 
lying from S.E. to N.W.; hazel-nuts were also found, 
apparently perfect, but crumbling to pieces when touched. 
The lowest bed of clay rested on a bed of sand and gravel 
of considerable depth. Dr. Mason sent the fragment to 
Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., and his opinion on it was 
as follows: ‘‘The enclosed is the distal end of the meta- 
tarsal bone of hind foot of Ox, probably large domestic 
Bos longifrons, cut with a metal saw.” 
Bos longifrons was, at the time of the Roman invasion, 
common in a wild state, and probably also domesticated, all 
over this country, and was hunted and largely used for food. 
Its remains have been found in great profusion in many 
places, especially in the Irish bogs and the Fen districts, 
*For the details of this interesting find we are indebted to Mr. J. If 
Hunter. The explanatory note is by Dr. P. B. Mason, and was read at a 
Meeting of the Society on 12th March, 1896, when the fragment was 
exhibited. 
