BISON PRISCUS. 495 



drift at Oopthorne, Worcestershire, yields the following 

 dimensions : from tip to tip of the horn-cores, following 

 the anterior curves, three feet eight inches ; the same in 

 a straight line, three feet four inches. 



Hitherto, no fossil skeleton of the same individual has 

 been discovered in a state of such completeness as to 

 enable the anatomist to ascertain the number of the ribs, 

 a fact which would be of importance in determining the re- 

 lations of the ancient European Aurochs with the existing 

 Lithuanian Aurochs and the Bison of North America. 

 Cuvier regrets that he had not sufficiently precise know- 

 ledge of the formations containing remains of the great 

 fossil Aurochs ; but that which M. v. Meyer cites appears 

 to give the required proof of the high antiquity of the 

 Bison priscus.* 



The brick-earth of Woolwich and Ilford, from which two 

 of the specimens of fossil Aurochs above cited were found, 

 underlies a layer of sand, with pebbles and concretions, 

 containing shells of Unio and Cyclas ; and the remains of 

 both Mammoth and Rhinoceros are unquestionably asso- 

 ciated with those of the Aurochs in this formation. The 

 other localities which may be cited, from the less certain 

 character of the proportion of the metacarpal and metatarsal 

 bones those of the slenderest proportions being referred to 

 the Aurochs, are Brentford, Kew, Kensington, Wickham, 

 Erith, Grays, Whitstable, Gravesend, Copford, and Clacton. 



Professor Phillips has recorded the discovery of the 

 skull with the cores of the horns and the teeth of the 

 great Aurochs at Beilbecks in his ' Geology of Yorkshire,' 

 vol. i. 2nd edition, accompanied by land and fresh-water 



* The skull of the Aurochs, No. 10 of v. Meyer's Monograph, forms part of 

 the collection at Darmstadt, and bears the following ticket, " Ochsenkopf aus 

 dem Rhein, bei Erfelden mit deni Rhinoceroskopf in Rhein gefunden." V. 

 Meyer states that the skull of the Rhinoceros belongs to the extinct species 

 tichorhinus. Op. cit. p. 34. 



