128 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [DcC. 19, 



So far as the rest of the cranial structure can be compared, there 

 is no notable difference between the recent and fossil crania. 



The question remains, whether the degree of difference observable 

 in the horn-cores is to be interpreted as specific. On this point it 

 may be remarked that the difference in the size and proportions of 

 the horn-cores is much greater between the male and female of the 

 existing Musk-buffalo, than between the recent and fossil skulls of 

 the male sex. It seems unreasonable, therefore, to involve a distinct 

 primordial origin, or specific act of creation, to account for differ- 

 ences that are so much smaller than those that depend on mere 

 sexual modification of one and the same species. 



The horns are superadded appendages to the mammalian type ; 

 they are not common to all Ruminantia ; in many of that order 

 they are restricted to the male sex. Like all peripheral superaddi- 

 tions to typical structure, they are subject to great variety. The 

 influence of restricted range in space and of relative number of 

 individuals to a given extent of feeding-ground affects the propor- 

 tions of the horns in wild species, or those that in all other respects 

 continue to live in a state of nature. This fact is exemplified in the 

 Red-deer of the Highlands of Scotland. No examples of that noble 

 crowned antler which characterized the "Hart of tyne " within the 

 historical period are now to be seen, or have been obtained for some 

 years back, in the Scottish deer forests. But the typical luxuriance 

 of antler-development is still to be met with in the red-deer existing 

 under more favourable circumstances and with a wider range of 

 pasturage, in parts of central and southern Europe and in Asia 

 Minor*. When to restricted range is added the more direct inter- 

 ference of man, as in the domestic races of ruminants, the horns are 

 amongst the first parts to attest the influence of those modifications 

 relating to food, to exercise, to exposure to the elements, and to 

 defence from natural enemies, resulting from domestication. 



We might fairly infer, therefore, a priori, that the progressive limi- 

 tation of a bovine species, to a more restricted area and more northern 

 latitudes, would first manifest its influence in some modification of the 

 horns. The observed differences, however, between the fossil and 

 recent Musk-bufialoes in this respect are far inferior to those which 

 domestication has effected in the condition of the same appendages 

 of the same imquestionable species of Ox and Sheep. 



By the analogy of such facts, therefore, and guided by the above 

 train of reasoning, we are led to conclude that the ascertained differ- 

 ences between the fossil and recent Musk-buffaloes are not of specific 

 value ; and that the Bubalus moschatus — with a range at present 

 restricted to a southern limit, defined " by a line running from the 

 entrance of the Welcome River into Hudson's Bay, about the 60th 

 parallel of latitude in a westward and northward direction to the 66th 

 parallel at the north-east corner of Great Bear Lake, and from 

 thence in nearly the same direction to Cape Bathurst in the 71st 



* Since this paper was read, Dr. Saudwith has shown me the antler of a Red- 

 deer (Cervus elaphus) from the Crimea, which equals in size, number of snags, and 

 expanse of summit, any fossil specimen I have seen. — Feb. 1856. — R. 0. 



