54 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



I say in Southern Britain ; for it is not there, but in 

 the extreme North of England and in Scotland, that I 

 should expect to find the TJrus longest holding his own. 

 And in this opinion both Dr. John Alexander Smith, 

 Vice-President of the Society of Antiquaries of Scot- 

 land, and Professor Owen concur, one for historical, the 

 other for osteological reasons, though they neither of 

 them appear to think that either our domestic or our 

 wild cattle were derived from this source. Dr. Smith, 

 in his admirable paper entitled " Notes on the Ancient 

 Cattle of Scotland," thus gives his own opinion and 

 that of Professor Owen * : — 



" Here (that is, in Scotland) we have them in close 

 relation to the bronze weapons of a possibly still later 

 age, showing that these animals roamed in our 

 forests and marshes, and were hunted by the inhabi- 

 tants of these early times in at least our northern 

 kingdom of Scotland. Professor Owen says, ' From 

 the very recent character of the osseous substances 

 in the remains of these cattle, it may be concluded 

 that the Bos primigenius maintained its ground 

 longest in Scotland before its final extinction." 1 Dr. 

 Smith further on adds : " The remains, apparently 

 allied to the great ox, found in the ruins of human 

 dwellings of Caithness and Orkney, may perhaps be 

 considered to bring its existence down to the times 

 just preceding the invasion of the Norsemen in the 

 North of Scotland, from about the sixth to the eighth 

 or ninth centuries." 



The opinion of Dr. Smith, corroborated by that of 

 Professor Owen, formed on quite different grounds, is, I 



* " Proceedings of Soc. of Antiquaries of Scotland," vol. ix., p. 645 

 (1873). 



