William Davies — On Ovibos moschafus. 



247 



brick-earths of the Thames Valley, at Crayford, Kent. 1 Of these 

 nine specimens, six are fortunately characteristic portions of the 

 skull, these being the most important factors in the verification 

 of the species, and its authentication as a British fossil. Neverthe- 

 less, its remains are so rare, that any new discovery of characteristic 

 fragments which add to the evidence are of sufficient scientific 

 value to be placed upon record; and such evidence is afforded by the 

 discovery of the molars of a mandibular ramus, which I detected 

 amongst a series of miscellaneous mammalian remains, recently 

 obtained from the brick - earth at Crayford, and which were 

 submitted to me for examination by my friend, Eobert Cheadle, 

 Esq., F.G.S. 



The specimens consist of the three true molars and the fourth 

 premolar of the right side. They were found in situ in the jaw, 

 but unfortunately the bone was too decomposed and friable to be 

 preserved. The first molar is imperfect, the others are entire and 

 in good preservation, and they belonged to a large and fully 

 mature animal, the last lobe of the third molar having just come 

 into wear. They greatly resemble in their general form and 

 characters the teeth of Ovis and Capra, inasmuch as they have 

 no supplementary lobe in the external valleys of each molar, in 

 their simpler structure, and in being much more compressed 

 laterally, than are the teeth of Bos or Bubalus. 



That they belonged to an individual of large size is inferred from 

 the measurements of the teeth as compared with the teeth in a lower 

 jaw of a recent Musk-ox, of about the same age, in the British Museum 

 (612 /), and with which, excepting size, they agree in all essential 

 characters. These measurements in inches and tenths, are as follows : 

 — Combined length of series of four last molars in situ — Fossil, 5-6 ; 

 Eecent, 4-5. Measurements of teeth, separately : 





Fossil. 



Eecent. 





M. 

 III. 



M. 

 II. 



M. 

 I. 



P.M. 



M. 



M. 



III. 



M. 

 II. 



M. 

 I. 



P.M. 

 IV. 



Antero-posterior length 



Transverse diameter of 



anterior lobe 



1-85 



0-75 

 0-64 

 0-35 



1- 4 



0-78 

 0-73 



1- 1 



0-75 

 0- 7 



0-85 



0- 5 

 0-44 



1- 6 



0- 6 

 0- 5 

 0-32 



1-12 



0- 6 

 0-58 



0- 9 



0-59 

 057 



0- 8 

 0-45 



Do. do. second lobe 

 Do. do. third lobe 



0-41 



The recent jaw I assume to be the specimen from which Prof. 

 Boyd Dawkins obtained the measurements given in his Monograph 

 (pp. cit. p. 13), as they exactly coincide with those given above, 

 taken by myself. 



With regard to the position in the brick-earth, Mr. Cheadle 

 informs me that the teeth were found in the well-known chalk-pit 



1 See an exhaustive memoir upon the osteology, geographical range, and geological 

 distribution of this interesting Arctic animal, by Professor Boyd Dawkins, F.E.S., 

 " Pleistocene Mammalia," Part V. (Ovibos moschatus) ; in the Monographs of the 

 Palseontographical Society for 1872. 



