Prof. a. G. Seeleij — On Buhalus Bainii. 201 



Another mammalian fossil is better authenticated. In the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Geological Society of London, vol. iii. November 

 20th, 1839, the first evening communication was "Extract from 

 a letter addressed to Dr. Andrew Smith by A. Gr. Bain, Esq., 

 dated Graham Town, Cape of Good Hope, February 21st, 1839, 

 and communicated by Charles Darwin, Esq. The object of this 

 extract is to announce the discovery by Mr. Martin Smith of 

 the piths and portions of the head of an ox in the alluvial banks 

 of the Moddar, one of the tributaries of the Orange Eiver, and 

 40 feet below the surface of the ground. The piths with the breadth 

 across the os frontis measured 11 feet 7 inches, but it is calculated 

 that 5 inches had been broken off the end of each tip ; and the 

 circumference of the piths at the root was 18 inches. The orbits 

 were situated immediately under the base of the horns. Part of 

 the upper jaw containing five molar teeth, and other fragments of 

 the head, as well as a cervical vertebra, were found at the same 

 time." With time Mr. Bain's estimate of the original size of the 

 horn cores extended. For in the Trans. Geol. Society, series 2, vol. 

 vii. p. 59, the specimen is again alluded to in a letter to Sir Henry 

 de la Beche from Fort Beaufort, April 29, 1811:. " From an alluvial 

 deposit on the banks of the Moddar Eiver, before noticed, there was 

 obtained about five years ago the skull of a kind of Buffalo, retaining 

 the bony cores of a pair of horns which it is calculated must have 

 measured full fourteen feet from tip to tip when perfect. This fossil 

 is now in Cape Town." In the same volume of the Geological 

 Transactions, p. 192, is a final reference to another and apparently 

 similar animal. Mr. A. G. Bain in a paper on the Geology of South 

 Africa, read Nov. 1.5th, 1852, says, "I ought perhaps to mention that 

 I have frequently heard of animal remains being discovered in the 

 alluvium, differing from those of existing animals ; and I discovered 

 at Bloemhoff, in the Division of Graaf Eeinet, about 10 feet below 

 the surface, in a marly alluvial soil, some remains of an extinct 

 ruminant, consisting of a skull, with the core of one horn attached, 

 the former being of extraordinary length in proportion to its breadth. 

 Its forms part of the collection of 1847 [sent to the Geological 

 Society] and must speak for itseif. I have no doubt a diligent search 

 in the deep ruts or ravines which everywhere intersect the great 

 plains of the interior would produce a vast number of extinct 

 mammalian remains perfectly new to science." 



What became of the second specimen is not evident, but I make 

 no doubt that the former is the beautiful ornament which hangs 

 from the gallery in the South African Museum at Cape Town, partly 

 because Mr. Thomas Bain, who assisted in collecting specimens, has 

 always believed that specimen to be his father's fossil, and partly 

 because it agrees with Mr. Bain's description published in 1839. I 

 therefore propose to name it Buhalus Bainii. 



This Buffalo has the largest pair of horn cores known in the 

 genus. They are remarkable not only for length, but for curvature ; 

 the horn bending first forward and then backward in a curve, which 

 lies in one plane, which otherwise rather suggests the form and 



