260 Prof. Nilsson on the extinct and existing 



milar in the skeletons. The whole length * of the skeleton from 

 the nape to the end of the rump bones (ossa ischii) 9 feet. 



The length of the head from the anterior border of ft- „ in - lin - 



the ossa intermaxill. to the occipital ridge 2 4 4 



Thus the whole length of the animal about 11| to 12 



The height over the mane about 6 to 6^ 



The other dimensions. 



The length from the horn-cores to the intermax- 

 illary bone's anterior edge 2 15 



The length from the orbit's lower edge to ditto... 1 3 4 



,, ,, horn base to the orbits 6 4 



,, ,, horn-core's concave side ... 16 6 



„ „ horn-core's convex side ... 2 2 



The under jaw from the angle to the point 18 



The molar series in the upper jaw 7 4 



Breadth of the forehead between the upper part of 



the crown of the horn 9 1 



Breadth of the forehead between the lower parts 



ofditto 1 2 



Breadth of the forehead between the orbit's upper 



part 10 2 



Breadth of the forehead between the orbit's lower 



part 114 



Breadth between the intermaxillary bone's upper 



parts \ 3 2 



Breadth between the apertures of the ear in a line 1 4 



Distance between the points of the horn-cores ... 2 4 



The circumference of the crown of the horn 12 4 



* I have at hand, in the Museum here, a complete and an incomplete 

 skeleton of this species; besides from ten to twelve skulls both ef younger 

 and older ; also many different loose bones from various parts of the body. 

 When I wrote the first edition of this work twenty-seven years ago, I had 

 seen skulls only of this colossal species ; I came however to the conclusion, 

 upon comparing them with the skulls of tame oxen, that the animal must 

 have been about 11£ feet long and 6 feet high, which comes the nearest 

 to the proportion. But I insert here the whole note : — 



" From these measurements (of the skull of an Urox) an idea may be 

 formed of the magnitude of the Urox, which certainly far surpassed that of 

 all existing European animals. To judge from the proportions of the parts 

 to a tame bull, the head of the Urox shows that it must have been an animal 

 that from the nape to the root of the tail measured nearly 1 1^ feet, and in 

 height over the mane about 6 feet. In the Museum of the Royal Academy 

 are fragments of the cranium of the Urox, which must have belonged to an 

 animal more than 12 feet in length and 6£ feet high. On one, the distance 

 between the base of the honis above is 9£ inches, below 13 £ inches, the thick- 

 ness at the root 15 inches. The largest Scanian ox I have seen, and which 

 was of an unusually large size, measured in length from the nape to the root 

 of the tail 8 feet, and was 5 feet high over the mane. When we now con- 

 sider that bulls and cows never reach the size that castrated oxen do, and 

 that we ought to compare the bull or the cow with the wild ox kind, we shall 

 then easily perceive that this last-mentioned was much larger than the tame 

 ox, and perhaps he was even somewhat bigger in the southern regions, for 

 example in Germany, than here in Sweden. 



" Caesar's account that the Urus was magnitudine paulo infra Elephantos, 

 was not so exaggerated as one has imagined." 



