494 BOVIDvE. 



The former existence of the great Aurochs (Bison 

 prisons) in this island is unequivocally established by fossil 

 remains of the cranium and horn-cores from various newer 

 tertiary freshwater deposits, especially in Kent and Essex, 

 and along the valley of the Thames. 



One of these specimens (fig. 205) was dug out of a 

 stratum of dark-coloured clay beneath layers of brick- 

 earth and gravel, thirty feet below the surface, at Wool- 

 wich ; it presents the broad convex forehead, the ad- 

 vanced position of the horns, which rise three inches 

 anterior to the upper occipital ridge, and the obtuse- 

 angled junction of the occipital with the coronal or frontal 

 surface of the skull, all which characters distinguish that 

 part of the skeleton of the continental fossil and recent 

 Aurochs. The bony cores of the horns extend outwards, 

 with a slight curvature upwards, but are relatively longer 

 than in the Lithuanian Aurochs : the tips of the horn- 

 cores in the fossil are four feet six inches apart ; the dis- 

 tance from the mid-line between their bases to the ex- 

 tremity of the core, in a straight line, is two feet five inches. 



A characteristic cranium with horn-cores of the Bison 

 priscus, obtained by Mr. Warburton from the fresh-water 

 newer pliocene deposits at Walton in Essex, is suspended 

 in the Hall of the Geological Society of London. 



Another specimen of the fossil cranium of Bison priscus, 

 dug out of a brick-field at Ilford in Essex, presents, with 

 the same essential characters as the preceding, relatively 

 thicker, shorter, and more curved horn-cores. This fossil 

 differs by its shorter horns from the preceding, and more 

 resembles the existing Lithuanian Aurochs : it may indi- 

 cate the female of the more ancient Aurochs. 



A broken skull with perfect horn-cores of the Bison 

 priscus, discovered by Mr. Strickland in the fresh-water 



