236 Lloyd's natural history. 



Characters. — Horns cylindrical and placed at the very apex of 

 the skull ; no hump on the withers ; tail long and descending 

 below the hocks ; colour frequently white, with black or red- 

 dish ears and muzzle. 



History. — The numerous remains of gigantic Oxen specifi- 

 cally identical with the common domesticated Ox of Europe, 

 found in the brick-earths of the Thames Valley, the fens of 

 Cambridgeshire, and the peat of many parts of Scotland, prove 

 incontestably that such animals were abundant in Britain 

 during the pre-historic and Pleistocene periods. Although the 

 written evidence as to the existence of such absolutely wild 

 cattle in our islands during the historic period, is far from being 

 so conclusive as we might wish, yet it appears to leave little 

 doubt that such creatures were inhabitants of Britain. Thus, 

 as we learn from Mr. Harting's researches, FitzStephen, 

 writing about the year 11 74, of the country round and about 

 London, states that "close at hand lies an immense forest, 

 woody ranges, hiding-places of wild beasts, of Stags, of Fallow 

 Deer, of Boars, and of Forest Bulls." There are somewhat 

 similar records for other parts of the country ; and since it is 

 quite evident (from the circumstance of their skulls having 

 been transfixed by stone axes) that the absolutely wild cattle 

 of the Cambridgeshire fens were in existence during the 

 human period, it seems quite probable that these "Forest 

 Bulls," their undoubted descendants, may have been equally 

 wild. On the Continent there is decisive evidence that wild 

 cattle existed in Caesar's time in the Black Forest, and also, at 

 a much later date, both there and in Switzerland ; such cattle 

 being known to the Romans by the name of Urus, and to the 

 Germans as the Aurochs (the latter name being frequently 

 incorrectly applied to the Bison). 



Having said thus much in regard to the dearth of historical 

 evidence relating to the existence of absolutely v/ild cattle in 



