BOS PRIMIGEN 7 IUS. 499 



clear specific distinction from the Lithuanian Aurochs, prove 

 that such an animal was once distributed over Britain, 

 where, its antiquity, as a species, equalled that of the 

 Mammoth, the tichorhine Rhinoceros, the Spel?ean Hyeena, 

 and other'extinct mammals of the newer tertiary period. 



We have next to inquire into the evidence of the Urns, 

 that second kind of aboriginal wild ox, which Caesar 

 describes * as being not much inferior to the elephant 

 in size, and, though resembling the common bull in colour, 

 form, and general aspect, yet as differing from all the 

 domestic cattle in its gigantic size, and especially in the 

 superior expanse and strength of its horns. 



Of this species we have the same examples, short of the 

 still-preserved living animal, as of the Bison ; and it is 

 most satisfactory to find such proof of the general accuracy 

 of the brief but most interesting indications of the primitive 

 mammalian fauna of those regions of Europe which may 

 be supposed to have presented to the Roman cohorts 

 the same aspect as America did to the first colonists of 

 New England. 



In the same deposits and localities which have yielded 

 remains of the Aurochs (Bison priscus) there have been 

 found the remains of another bovine animal, its equal or 

 superior in size, but differing from the Aurochs precisely 

 as the Roman poets and historians have indicated, by the 

 greater length of its horns. The persistent bony supports 

 or cores of the horns likewise demonstrate, by their place 

 of origin and curvature, the subgeneric distinction of the 

 great Urus, from the Bison, and its nearer affinity to the 



* " Tertium est genus eorum qui Uri appellantur. Hi sunt magnitudine paulo 

 infra elephantos, specie et colore et figura tauri. Magna vis eorum et magna velo- 

 citas : neque homini neque ferae, quam conspexerint, parcunt. Amplitude cor- 

 nuum et figura et species multum a nostrorum bourn cornibus differt." Caesar de 

 Bella Gallico, lib. vi. cap. 29. Valpy's Delphin Classics, 8vo. 1819, p. 254. 



K K 2 



