2i8 WILD WHITE CATTLE. 



that a principal element in the food of these people 

 was milk, and therefore they could not afford to keep 

 the calves, which must have consumed a large por- 

 tion of what would otherwise have been available for 

 the use of the household.* 



But to return to Bos primigenius. While such 

 authorities as Professors Riitimeyer and NUsson, 

 Sir Charles Lyell, Professor Boyd Dawkins,t and 

 Mr. Darwin are inclined to believe that our wild white 

 cattle are descended from the Urus in one or other of 

 the two ways above indicated. Professor Owen and Dr. 

 J. A. Smith (whose excellent "Notes on the Ancient 

 Cattle of Scotland " are apparently less known than 

 they deserve to bej) hold a different view, and con- 

 sider that Bos primigenius became extinct throughout 

 the whole island in pre-historic times. There seems to 

 be much probability, though it can scarcely be con- 

 sidered proved, that such was the case in the southern 

 parts of Britain; but, as Mr. Storer in his lately 

 published work has pointed out,§ it has yet to be shown 

 tliat in the northern parts the same rule prevailed, 

 the Caledonian deposits especially (partly perhaps from 

 their remote positions) having in but few instances 

 been examined with that consummate skill, care, and 

 attention which southern discoveries have received. 



* Greenwell, 'Grrimes Graves,' " Journ. Bth. Soo.,"vol. ii. p.431 (1871). 



t Professor Boyd Dawkius once thought the Urus might have sur- 

 vived in Britain within historic times in some of the wilder parts of 

 the country,("Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc," 1866, p. 397), but subsequently 

 altered his opinion (" Trans. Internat. Congress, Prsehist. Archeeol.," 

 1 868, pp. 269-289.) 



X See "Pro. 800. Antiq. Scotl.," vol. ix. p. 587. 



§ " The Wild White Cattle of Great Britain." 



