16 



PLEISTOCENE MAMMALIA. 



CHAPTER III. 



The Fossil Ovibos. 



§ 1 . Fossil Remains in Siberia. 

 § 2. „ ,, America. 



§ 3. Fossil Remains in Germany. 

 § 4. ,, „ France. 



§ 1. Fossil Remains in Siberia. — The fossil remains of Ovibos found in Europe, 

 Asia, and America, are admitted to be specifically identical with the Ovibos moschatus by all 

 naturalists conversant with the latter animal. The first notice of the fossil we owe to the 

 great Russian naturalist, Dr. Pallas, who in 1772 described and figured the skulls of two 

 old males 1 (immania cum cornibus capita). The one found on the banks of the Obi, the 

 other from a Tundra, or treeless barren ground, near Beresov, on the same river. He 

 leaves their specific determination open, merely remarking that they agree with Bubalus 

 Coffer in the apposition of the horncores. They are, however, recognised by his contemporary 

 in England, Pennant, in 1784, 2 as belonging to the recent Musk Sheep, and as finally afford- 

 ing evidence of the former range of that animal over Northern Asia. In 1809 M. le Comte 

 Rouminatzow found a third head at the embouchcment of the Yaua, with its horns pre- 

 served, and perfect with the exception of its nasals and premaxillaries. M. Ozeretskowsky 

 describes it under the name of Bison Musque, and believes that the animal lived in 

 Siberia, and that possibly it may have been exterminated by the same intense cold that 

 preserved its bones. s His two figures prove that the skull belonged to an old male. 



§ 2. Fossil Remains in America. — The next discovery of the animal was made by 

 Captain Beechey, in 1826, 4 and subsequently by Captain Kellett, in 1850, in the remark- 

 able accumulation of bones of Mammoth, Reindeer, Elk, Bison, and Horse, originally 

 found by Dr. Eschscholtz in the bay called after his name. They consist of two frag- 

 mentary skulls, with horncores of old males, and the atlas, third dorsal, fifth lumbar, and 

 four sacral vertebras, an acetabulum, pieces of the humerus, and one mutilated tibia. A large 

 cervical vertebra from the same locality is considered by Sir John Richardson to belong 



1 'Nov. Comm. Petrop.,' xvii, 1772, p. 57. 

 3 'Memoires de l'Acad. de Petersb.,' iii, 215. 



2 'Arctic Quadrupeds,' vol. i. 



* 'Beechy's Voyage, 4to, LoDd., 1831, Appendix. 



