FOSSIL MAMMALIAN REMAINS. 121 
this variety have been found, to suppose that these fossils be- 
longed to individuals that had strayed into the fastnesses of our 
country, and regained some portion at least of their original free- 
dom. 
A fragment ofa skull, with the horn-cores, apparently belonging 
to this variety, was found during the excavation of the innermost 
dock at West Hartlepool, and is preserved in the Museum there, 
with remains of a mammoth, red-deer, and human beings. 
A more perfect specimen, presenting the same characters as the 
above mentioned, is preserved in the Durham University Museum. 
It was found in digging a new cut for the Tees, twelve feet below 
the surface, in a bed of peat. It differs from our modern ox, so 
far as I can perceive, only in the greater diameter of the skull be- 
tween the horn-cores. Jn Brewster’s History of Stockton-on-Tees, 
p. 481, it is stated that part of a metal buckle, a stag’s horn, a 
bullock’s head, a dens molaris of some ruminating animal were 
found ten feet deep in clay. The above head appears from a 
memorandum attached to it, to be the identical specimen obtained 
from this cutting, referred to in this paragraph. 
In the silt of Jarrow slake several fragments of the horn-cores 
with portions of the cranium, were found so similar in form to 
those of our domestic ox, that I hesitate to include them among 
those that are most certainly referable to the wild primeval ox, 
especially as I did not see what part of the silt they were obtained 
from, and the utter impossibility of relying on the information of 
workmen. 
Jt is to be hoped that further searches will enable us to arrive 
at more definite conclusions respecting the last mentioned 
variety ; and also increase numerically, this imperfect catalogue 
of our fossil mammalian fauna. 
SourTH SHIELDS, DECEMBER 23, 1861. 
EXPLANATION OF PLATES IV & V. 
Megaceros Hibernicus, Owen, found at Seaton Snook, Plate IV. 
Cervus Alces, Linn, found in Chirdon Burn, North Tyne, Plate V. 
WOT sme) ae Pre Dls N 
