416 Prof. Nilsson on the extinct and existing 



respects unlike not only all the foregoing, but also our tame 

 cattle. The fore-part of the body was very thick and broad, 

 with a high hump over the shoulders, from which the back went 

 strongly sloping downwards ; the hinder part was on the con- 

 trary quite slender and thin, so that the same proportions were 

 far from prevailing between the fore and hind parts of the body, 

 as in the tame ox. The legs above the knees were thick and 

 strong, but on the contrary under the knees slender and lean. 

 On the front of the head and under the neck was long close 

 curly hair, which along the back of the neck formed a mane, and 

 under the under-jaw a long beard. All the rest of the hairy 

 covering was shorter. The head, which was carried low, was 

 shorter and broader than that of our common oxen ; the muzzle 

 was less broad, and the nos- Fi„ 9 



trils were more open at the 

 sides ; the forehead between 

 the horns about 11 inches 

 broad and convex ; the horns 

 small, about 12 inches long; 

 near the roots 12 inches in 

 circumference, their direction 

 outward and backward, 

 thence crescent - shaped, 

 curved forward in one and 

 the same direction, yet some- 

 times the points were turned 

 upward; in colour they are Bos Bison. 



black, somewhat white-speckled. The colour of the animal dark 

 brown or sooty brown. 



Remarks. — When one sees an ox of this species, of which well- 

 stuffed specimens are now to be found in most museums, it is 

 impossible to admit that Caesar could mean this animal by 

 his Urus, which he describes, specie et colore et jigura tauri, and 

 is only distinguished from the common ox through its magni- 

 tude and amplitudo cornuum. 



With respect to the fossil skeleton, it is thus : the forehead 

 convex, for the most part above, between the roots of the horns ; 

 the nasal bones short, broad (only 3^ times as long as broad; in 

 the Urus they are 5, in B. longifrons near 6, and in the tame ox 

 6^ times as long as broad), going up to the line which is drawn 

 right over the sockets of the eyes ; these are produced into tube- 

 shaped processes. The lower, or front part of the lachrymal 

 bones, much narrower than the upper ; the distance between the 

 orbit and the base of the horn a little longer than the orbit's 

 diameter. The forehead upward, strongly shelving backward ; 



