BISON PRISCUS. 495 
drift at Cropthorne, Worcestershire, yields the following 
dimensions: from tip to tip of the horn-cores, following 
the anterior curves, three feet eight inches; the same in 
a straight line, three feet four inches. 
Hitherto, no fossil skeleton of the same individual has 
been discovered in a state of such completeness as to 
enable the anatomist to ascertain the number of the ribs,— 
a fact which would be of importance in determining the re- 
lations of the ancient European Aurochs with the existing 
Lithuanian Aurochs and the Bison of North America. 
Cuvier regrets that he had not sufficiently precise know- 
ledge of the formations containing remains of the great 
fossil Aurochs ; but that which M. v. Meyer cites appears 
to give the required proof of the high antiquity of the 
Bison priscus.* 
The brick-earth of Woolwich and Ilford, from which two 
of the specimens of fossil Aurochs above cited were found, 
underlies a layer of sand, with pebbles and concretions, 
containing shells of Unio and Cyclas ; and the remains of 
both Mammoth and Rhinoceros are unquestionably asso- 
ciated with those of the Aurochs in this formation. The 
other localities which may be cited, from the iess certain 
character of the proportion of the metacarpal and metatarsal 
bones—those of the slenderest proportions being referred to 
the Aurochs,—are Brentford, Kew, Kensington, Wickham, 
Erith, Grays, Whitstable, Gravesend, Copford, and Clacton. 
Professor 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 Yorkshire,’ 
vol. i. 2nd edition, accompanied by land and fresh-water 
* The skull of the Aurochs, No. 10 of v. Meyer’s Monograph, forms part of 
the collection at Darmstadt, and bears the following ticket, “ Ochsenkopf aus 
dem Rhein, bei Erfelden mit dem Rhinoceroskopf in Rhein gefunden.” V. 
Meyer states that the skull of the Rhinoceros belongs to the extinct species 
tichorhinus. Op. cit. p. 34. 
