ABSENCE OF EXTINCT SPECIES. 149 



Uri, Valais, etc., in fact, in the whole country south of a 

 line drawn from the Lake of Constance to Valais, agrees in, 

 its general osteological characters with the Bos longifrons of 

 Owen. The other or spotted variety, which is generally of 

 larger size, and prevails in Northern Switzerland, is con- 

 sidered by Prof. Rutimeyer to be descended from the B- 

 frontosus, a species found fossil in Sweden, and described 

 by Nilsson, 



I will not express any opinion of my own as to these con- 

 clusions. The subject is one no less difficult than important, 

 and my space does not permit me to lay before my readers 

 the details given by Prof. Rutimeyer, to whose work there- 

 fore those must refer who wish for more information on 

 the subject. All naturalists must feel much indebted to 

 Prof. Rutimeyer for the labor he has spent and the light he 

 has thrown upon the subject, whether we eventually adopt 

 his conclusions or not. 



Making allowance for the marine animals, such as seals 

 and fish, oysters, cockles, whelks,, etc., which we could 

 not expect to find so far away from the sea, the fauna 

 indicated by the remains found in the Swiss lakes agrees 

 remarkably with that which characterises the Danish Kjok- 

 kenmoddings, and belongs evidently to a far later age than 

 that of the celebrated stone hatchets, which were first made 

 known to us by the genius and perseverance of M. Boucher 

 de Perthes. 



Instead of the elephant and rhinoceros we find in the 

 later or second stone period in that, namely, of the Kjok- 

 kenmoddings and "Pfahlbauten" the urus and bison, the 

 elk, and the red deer already installed as monarchs of the 

 forest. The latter, indeed, with the boar, appears to have 

 been very frequent, and to have formed a most important 

 article of food to the Lake-dwellers. The urus, or great 

 fossil ox, is now altogether extinct, at least as a wild 



