576 



W. BOYD DAWKINS ON THE EXISTENCE OF 



inferred to have been discovered in situ, since its edges and processes 

 are sharp and fresh, and the red matrix is still adherent in places. 

 Had it been a waif and stray on the beach, it would have been 

 water-washed and more or less abraded, as is invariably the case 

 with beach-specimens cast np by the waves. 



2. Description and Identification. 



It consists of the posterior half of the upper surface of the skull 

 (see figure), comprising part of the occipital, the whole of the 

 parietals and frontals with the basal portion of the two horn-cores, 

 the posterior half of the left orbit, the lacrymals, and fragments 

 of the maxillaries. The measurements of the various parts are 

 given in the accompanying table in the first column in inches and 

 tenths. 



Table of Comparative Measurements of Skulls of Mush-Sheep. 





Fossil. 



Living. 



EJ 



1p 



'g 



s 



T3 



t-i 



Q 



44 



•*65 

 17-6 



03 



"•5 

 13-1 



T3 

 Sh 



O 



r £ 

 PR 



© 



" : 4 



14-0 



1-0 

 15-0 



on" 



3 



"S 



n 



e8 



s 



11-2 



4-4 

 1-7 



14 5 



1°° 

 7-6 



34 



1-9 



o 



13-8 



5-4 

 2-5 



Nuchal crest to frontonasal 



9-5 



4-5 

 34 



4-8 



20 

 1-5 



11-0 

 5-0 



Frontal width at parietofron- 

 tal suture 



Frontal width in front of 



Extent of orbits from median 

 suture of frontals 



Extent of orbit beyond facial 



plane of maxillary 



Space between horn-cores . . . 

 Basal circumference of horn- 



Length of horn-cores 









On comparing the skull from Trimingham with the fossil skulls 

 from various deposits in Britain, which have been described in my 

 monograph * on Ovibos moscJiatus, as well as with the recent skulls 

 in the British Museum and the College of Surgeons, from the Arctic 

 regions, it is at once obvious that it belongs to the same series and is 

 specifically identical with the living Musk-Sheep. I have further 

 compared it with the Bootherium of Leidy, the remarkable extinct 

 Ovibos of the Pleistocene strata of North America, and find that it 

 has no affinities in that direction. It is, in fine, a fragment of a 

 large skull belonging to an adult female, with the orbital ring 



* Ovibos rnoschafois, Pal. Soc. vol. xxv. 



