174 Notices of Big-hone Lick. 



subject of a paper in the annals of the Lyceum, by my friend Dr. 

 Dekay. On the supposition that it belonged to the same species 

 with some Siberian heads described by Pallas and Ozcrets- 

 koosky, he proposes to call it Bos Pallasii. Their strong resem- 

 blance to the musk ox is admitted by Cuvier and Pallas, and it 

 is equally apparent in the American specimens, of which I have 

 seen a third, from Ohio, besides the two above mentioned. If 

 they should finally prove to be identical with the Bos moschatus 

 it would be rendered doubtful, whether they ought properly to 

 be enumerated among the companions of the extinct races, 

 whose remains are deposited at Big-bone Lick. 



Kentucky appears to have been for ages the chosen habitation 

 of many species of the bovine family. Besides the buffaloes, that 

 within half a century abounded in that fertile country, we find 

 at Big-bone the remains of two other species, while a fourth is 

 proved to have formerly inhabited the same neighbourhood : the 

 remarkable skull, a portion of which is preserved by the Ameri- 

 can Philosophical Society, was found within ten miles. It is the 

 Bos latifrons of Dr. Harlan, which Cuvier compares with the 

 aurochs, Bos urus, of the old continent. 



Cervus Americanos. Harlan. 



In the paper which we have several times had occasion to 

 refer to, Dr. Wistar describes an imperfect skull of a species of 

 Cervus, which he found among those brought from Big-bone Lick 

 by general Clarke. A careful comparison of it with the two 

 great species of this genus that now inhabit the United States, 

 led him to conclude that it came from an animal different from 

 both these, and larger than either. Dr. Harlan has also describ- 

 ed it in his Fauna, with the name of Cervus americanus. 



Among the smaller bones discovered in 1830 at Big-bone Lick, 

 and since exhibited in this city, arc several belonging to one or 

 more species of deer. The greater part, I have no doubt, are 

 recent bones, but among them is a skull so similar to that figured 

 by Dr. Wistar, and, though very large, so different from that of 

 either the moose or elk, that I did not hesitate to refer it to the 

 extinct species. It is not more complete than Dr. Wistar's spe- 

 cimen, and bears the appearance of having been rolled. These 

 are the only instances of the occurrence of this fossil with which 

 I am acquainted. 



I To be Ccmlinued.] 



