140 Royal Society, 



"With the exception of the great development of the horns, there is 

 no point in common between it and JBithahis caffir. The encroach- 

 ment of the horn-cores on the parietals differentiates it from the 

 sheep. 



The animal ranges at the present day from Port Churchill, 

 lat. 60°, northwards as far as the arctic sea, and eastwards as far 

 as Cape Bathurst, lat. 71°, living for the most part on the 

 " barren grounds," and never penetrating far into the woods. In 

 geological times, however, it had a far greater range eastwards 

 and southwards. In the pleistocene river-gravels lying on the 

 solid ice in Eschscholtz Bay, in Russian America, it is found 

 associated with the elk, reindeer, bison, horse, and mammoth. 

 Traces of the animal ranging further to the east are afforded by 

 the skull found on the banks of the Tena, in lat. 70°, long. 135°. 

 Dr. Pallas's discovery of two skulls on the banks of the Obi 

 brings the animal still closer to the borders of Europe. All 

 three skulls were found in the " Tundas," or treeless " barren 

 grounds " of Siberia, in the same series of gravels which afford 

 such vast stores of fossil ivory. In Grermany it has been found in 

 three localities ; and in Erauce, in the valley of the Oise, it is as- 

 sociated with flint implements of the St. Aclieul type, and with 

 the mammoth and Elephas antigiius. It has also been found in 

 the reindeer-caves of Perigord, under circumstances that prove 

 beyond doubt that the animal was eaten by the reindeer-folk. 

 In England it has been found in three gravel-beds of late pleisto- 

 cene age, near Maidenhead, at Ereshford near Bath, and at 

 Greenstreet-green near Bromley. In 1866 the author dug it out 

 of the lower brick-earth of Crayford in Kent, where it was as- 

 sociated with Wiinoceros megarhinus, H. Jeptorliinus (Owen), 

 and Eleplas ant'uimis. The skull in this latter case belonged 

 to a remarkably fine old male. Thus its present limited range in 

 space contrasts most strongly with its Avide range in pleistocene 

 times through North Siberia and Central Europe north of a line 

 passing through the Alps and Pyrenees. Its association with 

 animals of a temperate or else southern zone is to be accoiuited 

 for by its having been driven from its usvial havints by an un- 

 usually severe winter. The rarity of its remains proves that it 

 was not so abundant as those animals which are associated with 

 it in Erance, Germany, and Britain. 



Professor Leidy figures and describes two fossil skulls most 

 closely allied to Ovihos moscliatus, from Arkansas and Ohio, under 

 the name of Hootlierium cavifrons and JB. homhifrons ; they are, 

 however, most probably the male and female of the same species. 

 They differ from Ovihos onoschatus only in the direction of their 

 horn-cores, and in their bases meeting and becoming fused on the 

 coronal surface of the male skull. The horn-cores are supported 

 both by the frontals and parietals. In other respects they pre- 

 sent the same ovine aflinities as Ovihos, and certainly belong to 

 the same genus. 



