XIX. 



NOTE ON THE ANIMAL REMAINS 

 FOUND AT CISSBURY 1 . 



The most surprising, though by no means the most important 

 result of the examination of the animal remains found in the 

 excavations at Cissbury was the demonstration of the existence 

 amongst them of the bones of the wild ox. Bos jorimigetiius, and 

 the wild boar, Sus scrofa v. ferns. It is true that we have abundant 

 evidence from the consilient utterances of poets, historians, and 

 naturalists, from the names of men and places, and from other 

 quarters also 2 , for showing that these wild animals persisted into 

 quite recent historical times. Still, for all that, it has been at 

 least rare to find their bones in any prehistoric excavation. I had 

 never been so fortunate as to meet with any such remains so placed 

 till my experiences at Cissbury. It had never seemed difficult to 

 me to account for this absence, the presence of the remains of 

 domestic animals sufficiently explaining it on the principle of 

 • least action/ a principle which commends itself as much to savage 

 as to sage. Hence, when I was told that in the pits excavated at 

 Cissbury by the late Mr. Tyndall, of Brighton, the bones of Bos 

 primigenius had been found in considerable quantities, as also those 

 of Sus scrofa v. ferus, I felt and expressed a great anxiety to see 

 them. This wish was gratified and my scepticism removed by the 

 kindness of my friend Mr. Ballard, of Broadwater, who presented 

 me with the bones now to be described as having come from 



1 [In November 1875 Colonel A. Lane Fox, now Major General Pitt- Rivers, com- 

 municated to the Anthropological Institute a Report of the Exploration Committee 

 On the Excavations in Cissbury Camp, near Worthing, Sussex, which disclosed a 

 great factory for flint weapons ('Journ. Anth. Inst.' v. 1876). The above account of 

 the animal remains discovered in the course of these excavations was given by 

 Professor Rolleston and published in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 

 vol. vi. p. 20, 1877.— Editor.] 



2 See Dr. J. A. Smith, « Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot.,' 1871-72, ix. p. 667. 



