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 w41d and tame state, just 

 as now in Europe the domestic pig co-exists w^ith the wild 

 boar; and Eiitimeyer 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. I 



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

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

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

 " marsh-hog," or Sus Scrofa palustris. It ma}^ be asked how 

 the osteologist can distinguish the tame from wild races of 

 the same species by their skeletons alone. Among other 

 characters, the diminished thickness of the bones and the 

 comparative 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 wdiole of the stone period ; but the people of the 

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

 horse, of which genus very few traces have been detected in 

 the earher settlements,— a single tooth, for example, at Wan- 

 gen, 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. oh. f British Quadrupeds, p. 415. 



12, p. 161. t Britisli Fossil Mammal, p. 500. 



