506 BOVJD.E. 



the bridge at Melksham, in a hole sunk in the gravel, and 

 nearly filled with soft black mud. This situation he states 

 to correspond with the places in the neighbourhood of 

 Bath, particularly near Lark-hall, at Tiverton and Newton 

 St. Loe, where such remains have also within a few years 

 been discovered, " mingled with those of the extinct Ele- 

 phant or Mammoth, Rhinoceros, Bear, Boar, and Horse. 1 "* 

 The cores of the horns measured in their widest expansion 

 four feet within half an inch, and from tip to tip three 

 feet three inches. The length of each horn-core, following 

 the curvature, was three feet ; and these weapons must 

 have been greatly increased when the cores were invested 

 with the horny sheaths in the living animal. The breadth 

 of the forehead between the horns was ten inches, and the 

 breadth across the orbits thirteen inches and a quarter. 



Cuvier states, with regard to fossil remains of the Bos 

 primigenius, " II s'en trouve en Angleterre," apparently 

 on the authority of drawings transmitted to him by Mr. 

 Crow. Mr. Parkinson^ refers his specimens of Bovine 

 fossils, dug up in Dumfriesshire, to the Bos primigenius, 

 but without assigning the grounds for this choice. 



Cuvier devotes a distinct section to the detached fossil 

 bones of the trunk and extremities of the Bovine tribe, 

 expressing his regret at the numerous sources of uncer- 

 tainty and difficulty attending their determination when 

 unassociated with the skull ; whilst he acknowledges the 

 great importance of ascertaining the species of Bovida 

 to which the bones from each stratum belonged ; whether, 

 for example, an Aurochs, an Ox, or a Buffalo had been 

 the companion of the Elephants, Rhinoceroses, &c. which 

 formerly lived in climates of Europe. At the period of 

 the publication of the second edition of the * Ossemens 



* Op. cit. p. 17. + ' Organic Remains,' vol. iii. p. 325. 



