REMAINS OF TEE URUS. 53 



of the weapon is held by numerous and experienced 

 palaeontologists who have examined it. The skull of the 

 Urus has been found in Scotland in a moss, having in 

 company with it bronze celts, which indicate a still later 

 period — the Bronze Age. It has been found also in the 

 " brochs," or " Picts' houses," which are believed to be 

 of a still less ancient date. It is even said that in one 

 case it was found pierced by a Roman spear ; but no 

 trouble has been taken to verify or to invalidate such an 

 all-important fact. Mr. Boyd Dawkins also states, in a 

 letter to me, dated April, 1875, that he has found two 

 cases, and two only, in the large accumulations of bones 

 he has himself examined, of the Urus as existing in 

 Britain during the pre-historic period: "the one being 

 presented by those from the neolithic flint-pits * of 

 Cissbury, and the other by those from a tarn near Bury 

 St. Edmunds, of the Bronze Age." Mr. Dawkins adds: 

 " In both cases the animal was probably wild, and not 

 domesticated. The Urus was extremely rare in the pre- 

 historic deposits of Britain." Both these statements 

 may be fully admitted. No discoveries have yet been 

 made which can lead us to suppose that the Urus was 

 domesticated in Britain in pre-historic times ; while the 

 Bos longifrons, essentially " the Celtic ox," was every- 

 where subjugated to and used by man. And it must be 

 also apparent that if the Urus was then comparatively 

 rare, even as a wild animal, the proofs we should have 

 of his existence would also be relatively rare, and of 

 his being destroyed by man fewer still. It is, perhaps, 

 wonderful that under these circumstances so much 

 evidence has been obtained of the existence of the Urus 

 in Southern Britain during a somewhat late pre-historic 

 age. 



