A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE 



and figured by the late Dr. Leith Adams in his monograph on ' British 

 Fossil Elephants,' published by the Palaeontographical Society of London, 

 between 1877 and 1881 ; the figures of this particular specimen being given 

 in plate 13. A second regrettable instance of the destruction of unusually 

 well-preserved elephant remains appears to have taken place in the county in 

 1858, in which year a skeleton of one of these monsters was discovered in 

 the gravel overlying the Lias of Barrow on Soar. According to a contem- 

 porary account given by Mr. James Plant' : 



The animal, which measured about 1 1 ft. in length, was lying on its side, nearly two 

 yards below the surface, and only a few inches above the bed of blue marl which constitutes 

 the uppermost member of the Lower Lias at Barrow. So perfect was it when just 

 discovered that the integuments were plainly discoverable. In a short time, however, 

 exposure to the atmosphere produced its wonted effects, and of the whole skeleton it was only 

 possible to preserve portions of the tusks, four teeth, part of a femur, and a large fragment of 

 the scapula ; some of these remains have been deposited in the Museum of the Literary and 

 Philosophical Society. 



The sole remains of the Barrow specimen, now extant, appear to be one 

 perfect molar and a portion of a second, preserved in the Leicester Museum. 

 Together with a molar in the same collection from Thorpe Arnold, these 

 specimens are referred in Mr. Browne's book to the straight-tusked 

 elephant (E. antiquus), a species differing from the mammoth by the some- 

 what thicker and less numerous plates of the molars. If this identification 

 be trustworthy, it would appear that the Barrow find is the only instance of 

 the discovery of a complete skeleton of Elephas antiquus in this country. 

 The statement as to the preservation of the integuments in that specimen is 

 a little difficult to credit. 



Of rhinoceros molars the Leicester Town Museum in 1889 was in 

 possession of thirteen specimens from the upper and eleven from the lower 

 jaw collected at various dates from the Belgrave gravels, in addition to one 

 upper molar presented in 1881, five lower ones found in 1886, and a 

 metacarpal bone of the fore-foot dug up in 1876. There are also teeth 

 known from Thurmaston, one of which is in the Museum. The Belgrave 

 teeth, at any rate, are referred in Mr. Browne's book to the narrow-nosed 

 species, Rhinoceros leptorhinus, and not to the common woolly rhinoceros 

 (R. anfiqu/talis), of which the molars are of a different type. The latter 

 species is, however, recorded by Messrs. Woodward and Sherborn in their 

 Catalogue of ^ British Fossil Vertebrata from Market Harborough. In the same 

 work mention is made of remains of the horse, probably the wild Equus 

 caballusfossilis, from the neighbourhood of Leicester. 



Certain remains from the gravels of various districts in the county are 

 referable to the Pleistocene bison, Bos (Bison) prisons, often mis-called the 

 fossil aurochs. Of the true aurochs, or extinct wild ox (Bos taurus primi- 

 genius), the Leicester Museum, in addition to other remains, is in possession 

 of a fine skull discovered in 1880 in the gravels of Abbey Meadow near 

 Leicester. The domesticated breed of cattle known as the Celtic shorthorn 

 (often incorrectly regarded as a distinct species, under the name of Bos 

 longifrons) is represented by various remains from superficial deposits in and 

 near Leicester, some of which belong to the Bronze Age. From similar 



' See Browne, op. cit. 27. 

 2O 



