ROOM IV. BOS LONGIFRONS. 393 



admitted to be that which points to the Bos longifrons as the 

 species that would be domesticated by the aborigines of 

 Britain before the Roman invasion. Had the Bos primigeiiius 

 been the source, we might have expected the Highland and 

 Welsh cattle to have retained some of the characteristics of 

 their great progenitor, and to have been distinguished from 

 other breeds by their superior size, and the length of their 

 horns. The kyloes and the runts are, on the contrary, 

 remarkable for their small size, and are characterised either 

 by short horns, as in the Bos longifrons, or by the entire 

 absence of these weapons." 1 



From what has been advanced, we may conclude that three 

 well characterised types of Bovidse existed in great numbers 

 contemporaneously with the extinct species of Elephants, and 

 other pachyderms, and were not extirpated till within a com- 

 paratively recent period; their remains occur in the most 

 ancient post-pliocene deposits, and in the peat-bogs, and debris 

 of existing marshes and rivers : they form therefore a link 

 between the present and the past, uniting the extinct mam- 

 malian faunas with those of modern times. 



1 "Brit. Fossil Mammals," p. ,514. 



