3^5 Remains of gigantic Oxen found, in America. 



phical Society at Philadelphia. By permiffion of the fociety 

 I made a plafter caft of this extraordinary bone, which I 

 have now with me in London, and of which I fend you an 

 accurate drawing, reprefenting the back part of the head, 

 with the condyles of the neck, and the pith or internal part 

 of the left horn at the bafe, (See Plate VI.) The right horn 

 is broken ofi', and all the fore part of the head ; but from the 

 fragment remaining it is a reafonable conjedlure that the 

 buftalo to which it belonged was about loor ^\ feet high. 

 The horn at the bafe meafures at inches in circumference, 

 and tapers very gently towards the extremity, where it is 

 broken off; fo that the horn could not have been lefs than 

 fix feet in length. From the middle future on the head to 

 the bafe of the horn meafures 7^ inches; confcquently the 

 two horns were 15 inches dillant; which muft have been in- 

 creafed when they were partly covered with flefli, fkin, and 

 hair. 



It is very extraordinary that bones of this kind have been 

 occafionally found in Siberia, in Italy, Germany, and other 

 parts of Europe, though not quite fo large as this American 

 bone; which circumltance, ftrengthened with others of a 

 fimilar nature, muft prove, either that thefe great animals 

 have inhabited thofe various countries, or that their remains 

 have been forcibly fcattered by the aftion of water. 



Butfon informs us *, that in the parifli of Haux, a mile 

 and a half from Langoiran, in the fplitting of a great rock, 

 fome large bones, moftly petrified, were difcovered ; probably 

 of the ox kind, but of a very great magnitude. He likewife 

 mentions t, that in 1772 there was found near Rome an 

 ox's head in a ftate of petrifaftion. The length of the fore- 

 head between the two horns was 2 feet 3 inches ; the diftance 

 between the orbits of the eyes 14 inches ; that from the upper 

 portion of the forehead to the orbit of the eyes, i toot 6 inches; 

 the circumference of one horn, 18 inches; the length of the 

 fame following the curve, 4 feet. " This inftance is fufficient 

 to prove," fays BufFon, " that there have been prodigious 

 cianls among tliis fpccies of animals; but it is further con- 

 firmed by other fafts." He then enumerates feveral bones 

 of the fame kind in the mufeum at Paris fimilar to fome 

 which I have remarked in the Britifli mufeum. 



In the Philofophical Tranfaftions \ there is an engraving 

 and an account of a bone of this kind, found near the city of 



* Qii.Trto Supplement, vol. v. p. 486. f Page 543. 



\ Vol. xxxvii. p. 417. 



Dirfchaw, 



