122 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



away by Carnivora. The ribs were gnawed along their edges, 



and also the bones of the nose, but these latter slightly, as if by 



some small rodent. The skull was to some extent encrusted with 



iron pyrites. 



The following are the measurements : — 



ft. in. 



Extreme sweep of horns, measuring behind . . 4 1 

 Widest sweep of horns, or extreme breadth from curve 



to curve ........ 2 3J 



From tip to tip of horn-cores 1 9£ 



Girth of horn-cores at base - 9| 



Outside sweep left horn-core 1 8f 



Outside sweep right horn-core . . . . . 1 9^ 



Across forehead - 9 



Length of skull ....... 2 1 



Distance between orbits - 9 



From top of occipital ridge to centre of line drawn between 



the orbits ......... 9 



Diameter of orbits - 3 



Sweep or curve of ribs ...... 2 1 



Breadth of ribs - 2 to 2£ 



Three molars and two premolars on each side in skull; the 

 first premolar on each side is wanting, having dropped from the 

 socket. 



The turbinated bones, which were subsequently detached, show 

 the intricate convolutions ; they are delicate bony structures, as 

 thin as note-paper, with an enormous development of surface 

 for the termination of the olfactory nerves. 



The great size of the eye-cavity and the construction of the 

 turbinal bones are suggestive of extraordinary powers of sight 

 and smell. The ribs, compared with a modern short-horn, have 

 very little spring ; Bos primigenius was flat-sided and gaunt. 



With this grand framework of bone before us it is easy, with 

 a little imagination, to make the dry bones live, and build up a 

 form sufficiently vivid to recall the grandeur and majesty of 

 this beast — the mighty monarch of a primeval forest, where once 

 he roamed in great herds in undisputed possession, through the 

 length and breadth of a great lone land, and across wastes and 

 moors now lost under salt water ; but in those distant times 

 there was no North Sea separating Britain from the Continent ; 

 all was land from the hundred-fathom line west of Ireland to 

 the furthest bounds of Asia. 



Caesar himself (* De Bello Gallico,' vi. 21), in describing these 

 wild oxen, remarks, with pardonable exaggeration, " Hi sunt mag- 



