ON BRITISH FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 233 
proportion of the metacarpal and metatarsal bones—those of the slenderest 
proportions being referred to the Aurochs,—are Brentford, Wickham, Ilford, 
Erith, Woolwich, Grays, Whitstable, Gravesend, Copford, and Clacton. 
Prof. Phillips has recorded the discovery of the skull with the cores of the 
horns and the teeth of the great Aurochs at Beilbecks in his ‘Geology of York- 
shire,’ vol. i. 2nd edition, accompanied by land and freshwater shells, and by 
remains of the Mammoth, Rhinoceros, Felis, large Horse, large Deer, Wolf, &c. 
Subgenus Bos. 
Bos primigenius, Bojanus. Beuf’ fossile, Cuvier. - 
The fortunate discovery of the cranium and horn-cores of this great extinct 
species in drift and recent tertiary deposits in this country, has enabled me to 
enter it without hesitation in the list of British Fossil Mammalia, and at the 
same time to determine its equal antiquity with the Aurochs. The charac- 
ters of the Bos primigenius, as contrasted with the Urus priscus, may be 
advantageously studied in the magnificent specimen of an almost entire ske- 
leton discovered in the drift overlying the London clay at Herne Bay, and 
now in the collection of Mr. Wickham Flower. The concave forehead with 
its median longitudinal ridge ; the origin of the horns at the extremities of the 
sharp ridge which divides the frontal from the occipital regions; the acute 
angle at which these two surfaces of the cranium meet to form the above 
ridge, all identify this specimen with the Bos primigenius described by Cuvier*, 
Bojanust+ and Fremery{. The cores of the horns bend at first slightly back- 
ward and upward, then downward and forward, and finally inward and up- 
ward, describing a graceful double curvature: they are tuberculate at the 
base, moderately impressed by longitudinal grooves, and irregularly perfo- 
rated: the length of each horn-core along the outer curve is 3 feet 3 inches; 
the circumference of the core at its base 18 inches 10 lines; the longest dia- 
meter of the base 63 inches ; the chord of the are described by the core is 
7z inches ; from the middle line of the forehead to the tip of the core is 2 
feet 2 inches. 
The length of the lower jaw of this specimen is 1 foot 8 inches ; that of the 
series of molar teeth is 7 inches. All the true vertebree except the atlas ap- 
pear to have been recovered, and they include the six remaining cervical 
vertebre ; thirteen dorsal and six lumbar vertebre; thus yielding another 
important character by which this great primeval Ox agrees with the do- 
mestic species of the present day. One of the dorsal vertebra which retains 
its spinous process measures 1 foot 7 inches in height; a development not 
greater than might have been expected for the support of the head and horns. 
One of the scapule shows a diseased external surface, ossific inflammation ha- 
ving extended from two depressions in the bone, provably inflicted by the horns 
of another bull in conflict. The metacarpal bones give additional exemplifica- 
tions of the true Bovine character of the present extinct species, by their 
stronger proportions as compared with those of the Aurochs; the length of 
one being 10 inches, and its circumference 5} inches. 
' Mr. Brown of Stanway has recorded his discovery, in a mass of drift-sand 
overlying the London clay at Clacton on the Essex coast, of the frontal part 
of the cranium, with the cores of the horns of a large Bovine animal, which, 
from the direction and degree of curvature of the horns, agrees with the fossil 
Bos primigenius. Each core measured 3 feet along the outer curve from the 
base to the tip; the chord of the arc of such curve being 8 inches: the dia- 
meter of the base was 6 inches in one direction and 5 inches in the other. With 
these parts of the Bos primigenius was found a perfect Mammoth’s tooth, 11 
inches in length, 8 inches in depth, and 3 inches across the grinding surface. 
* Ossem. Foss. iv. p. 150. t Nova Acta Acad. Nat. Cur. xiii. pt. 2. 
¢ N. Verh, Koninkl.-Nederlandsch Instituut, Derde Deel, 1831. 
