CHAP. II. MAMMALIA IN SWISS LAKE-DWELLINGS. 25 



have been imported from the southern side of the Alps.* 

 This last-mentioned race, however, seems only to have lasted 

 for a short time in Switzerland. 



The wild bull (Bos primigenius') is supposed to have 

 flourished for a while both in a wild and tame state, just 

 as now in Europe the domestic pig co-exists with the wild 

 boar ; and Biitimeyer agrees with Cuvier and Bell,f in con 

 sidering our larger domestic cattle of northern Europe as 

 the descendants of this wild bull, an opinion which Owen 

 disputes. J 



In the later division of the stone period, there were two 

 tame races of the pig, according to Kutimeyer ; one large, 

 and derived from the wild boar, the other smaller, called the 

 ' marsh-hog,' or Sus Scrofa palustris. It may be asked how 

 the osteologist can distinguish the tame from wild races of the 

 same species by their skeletons alone. Among other cha 

 racters, the diminished thickness of the bones and the com 

 parative smallness of the ridges, which afford attachment to 

 the muscles, are relied on ; also the smaller dimensions of the 

 tusks in the boar, and of the whole jaw and skull ; and, in like 

 manner, the diminished size of the horns of the bull and other 

 modifications, which are the effects of a regular supply of food, 

 and the absence of all necessity of exerting their activity and 

 strength to obtain subsistence and defend themselves against 

 their enemies. 



A middle-sized race of dogs continued unaltered through 

 out the whole of the stone period; but the people of the 

 bronze age possessed a larger hunting-dog, and with it a small 

 horse, of which genus very few traces have been detected 

 in the earlier settlements, a single tooth, for example, at 

 Wangen, and only one or two bones at two or three other places. 



In passing from the oldest to the most modern sites, the 



* Caesar's Commentaries, lib. v. ch. f British Quadrupeds, p. 415. 



12, p. 161. j British Fossil Mammal, p. 500. 



