201 



In conclusion, the author maintains that there are probably 

 other seals which would yield fur similar in quality to that which 

 was long so much valued, and is now so greatly desiderated. 



Monday, 9.d April. 

 Dr HOPE, V. P., in the Chair. 



The following donations were presented :— 

 The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and 



Ireland. No. 8 By the Society. 



Comptes Rendus Hebdoraadaires des Seances de I'Academie des 



Sciences. 1838. 1" Semestre. No. 10 — By the Academy. 

 Madras Journal of Literature and Science. Published under the 



auspices of the Madras Literary Society, and Auxiliary Royal 



Asiatic Society. Nos. 15, 16, and 17 — By the Society. 



The following comtnunications were read : — 

 1. On the Wild Ox of Scotland. By Dr Knox. 



In this memoir, the author endeavours to trace the antiquity of 

 the white oxen of Cadzou and of Tankerville during the historic 

 period of Britain, but thinks that materials are altogether wanting 

 for such an inquiry. No records exist in proof of these cattle being 

 aboriginal ; or, if introduced into the island by any of the three 

 great races of men found in it, it would be difficult to ofiFer a con- 

 jecture by which race they were introduced. Had the cattle of 

 Britain been generally white in Caesar's time, it is probable that that 

 great man would have noticed the fact. The author thinks it even 

 probable that these white cattle may have been introduced by the 

 Romans themselves, since they are not found in Ireland. Tacitus 

 mentions that the German cattle were without horns in bis day. 

 By " Germans," Tacitus here means the Saxon race ; and yet the 

 descendants of these Saxons in Holland had so completely lost all 

 trace of the polled or hornless cattle of their ancestors, that they 

 refused credit to Camper when he asserted to his countrymen that 

 he had seen cattle without horns in Britain. 



In the second part of the memoir the author examines tlie ques- 

 tion, Whether the white cattle of Britain constitute a distinct spe- 

 cies of the Bovine tribe, i. e. distinct from any known species or 

 variety of the domestic ox ? and he thinks that they do not ; but, 



