CHAP, viii.] THE DOMESTIC OXEN, SHEEP, AND GOATS. 297 



where no other breed of swine has been discovered, seem 

 to me good evidence that it was introduced into Europe 

 as a domestic animal. The small size of its tusks, as 

 compared with the wild boar, was most probably the 

 result of a long domestication before the animal arrived 

 in Europe. 



The common domestic hog, descended from the wild 

 boar, may have been originally tamed in Europe, since 

 the wild boar was a member of the European fauna in 

 Pleistocene and Prehistoric times. But, nevertheless, 

 the latter is found also in Asia, and it is therefore very 

 probable that it was domesticated in the same region as 

 the dog and the turf-hog. 1 



The Domestic Oxen, Sheep, and Goats. 



Among the two or three races of oxen found in the 

 pile-dwellings, the interest centres more particularly in 

 the small, delicately-shaped Celtic short-horn, which was 

 the sole domestic ox in Britain as late as the English 

 conquest. According to Professor Rlitimeyer, it was 

 not originally wild in Europe ; while Professor Nilsson, 

 on the other hand, holds that it lived in a wild state in 

 North Germany and Scandinavia. The animal is un- 

 doubtedly found in the turbaries of Britain, Ireland, and 

 of the Continent, in association with the remains of 

 animals such as the stag and roe. But this fact tells 

 us nothing of its aboriginal condition, since the cattle 

 introduced into America and Australia have become 

 wild, and are now spreading with a remarkable rapidity 



1 Dr. Rolleston calls attention to the exceeding variability of the wild 

 hogs of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and considers that the Neolithic swine 

 may be of foreign derivation. Trans. Lin. Soc., SS. i. p. 264. 



