120 FOSSIL MAMMALIAN REMAINS. 
by some transporting agent, belongs unquestionably to the his- 
toric period, very distinct marks of a saw, being still traceable on 
a portion of the skull. The form of the skull and its inferior 
dimensions indicate also its relationship to the domestic varieties. 
Bos primigenius has been found in a fossil state in Scotland, 
and alsoin the South of England, attaining, according to recorded 
measurements of the largest individuals that have been discovered, 
a greater size in the South, than in the North. The specimens 
found in this district, though larger than those found in Scotland, 
do not attain to the size of the finest examples from the South of 
England. The Jarrow example, which we suppose to belong to 
the cow of this specie, measured, between the horn-cores, eleven 
inches, and round the base of the horn-core, thirteen inches. The 
specimen from the alluvial banks of the Tyne, and which we 
suppose to be referable to the ancient bull, measured only nine 
and a half inches between the horn-cores, and nearly ten inches 
round the core at the base. 
Cuvier, Professor Bell, and many other eminent naturalists 
think that our domestic breeds have descended from this primitive 
wild stock, but it is to be regretted that several influential 
naturalists instead of subscribing to this sound opinion, have 
raised unnecessary and unsubstantial objections to it, and thrown 
the origin of our domestic race, as far as they have been able, into 
more than primeval obscurity. 
Var. Bos loigifrons, Owen. 
Professor Owen has reported the former existence of what he 
believes to be another species of bos, indigenous to our island, to 
which the fragments below mentioned bear considerable re- 
semblance. He also thinks that it is to this species, Bos 
longifrons and not to Bos primigenius, that we must look for the 
original of our domestic breeds, but, as in his remarks on Bos 
primigenius, the Professor conjectures it is more probable that the 
first colonists of these islands would bring their domestic cattle 
with them, than undergo the labour of reducing a primitive wild 
race to subjection, an opinion in which I think most will 
concur; it would seem a more probable opinion, notwithstand- 
ing the supposed antiquity of the deposit in which remains of 
