22 PLEISTOCENE MAMMALIA. 



Felis speJaa. 

 Hycena spelcsa. 

 Canis lupus. 

 Bison jjriscus. 

 Bos jjrimiffenius. 

 Cervus elaphus. 

 tarandus. 



Eleplias primigeniiis. 

 Equus cahallus. 

 BJdnoceros tichorhinus. 

 Sus crofa. 

 Spermophilus. 

 Lemmus. 

 Lepus timidus. 



There were also in the same deposit many land and fresh-water shells^ all of which 

 still live in the neighbourhood, except Succinea ohlonga} 



§ 5. Bemains found at Crayford. — All the foregoing instances of the occurrence of 

 Ovibos in the South of England prove that the animal lived there during a com- 

 paratively modern period, speaking in a geological sense. The beds from which they were 

 derived are in several cases but a few feet above the level of the streams, and the associated 

 animals are of species which are known to have existed daring a late division of the 

 Pleistocene period. That the animal dates back from a higher antiquity in Britain, at least, 

 is proved by my discovery of a remarkably fine head in the lower brick-earths of the 

 Thames Vallej^,^ at Crayford in Kent. In November, 1866, I visited the pit in company 

 with Mr. Flaxman Spurrell, and was fortunate enough to find, and convey safely to the 

 Museum of the Geological Survey in London, the cranium of a fine Bull, with its two 

 horn-cores absolutely perfect. The whole of the facial portion, including the maxiUary and 

 palatines, is wanting; the mastoids, paramastoids, and lambdoid crest, are also broken. As 

 we dug it out of the matrix the fragmentarv condition cannot be ascribed to the careless- 

 ness of the workmen. In its present state, however, it is more perfect than any other 

 found in Britain, and enough is left to put its determination beyond ail doubt. The basi- 

 occipital bone (PI. I, fig. 1) is remarkable for the stoutness of the muscular impressions, 

 and for the squareness of the ai'ea which they define. The anterior pair (c) are long and 

 narrow, and advance obliquely forwards until a small groove in the median line prevents 

 them from meeting. The suture between the basi- and presphenoidal suture is well 

 marked, and the presphenoid itself is overlapped by a fragment of the former. Enough 

 of the pterygoid remains to demonstrate its ovine affinities in the wide angle it makes with 

 the basi- and presphenoid. The height of the foramen magnum (PI. II a, 1'22), is the 

 same as its breadth. On the occiput the nuchal space is well seen, and the two 

 impressions for the cer^^cal muscles are very deep. The occipital ridge above them is 

 broken away. The occipito-parietal suture is very weU shown on the coronal surface. 

 The spongy bases of the horncores do not extend as far back as the occiput, and are 

 separated from one another in the middle by an interspace of 0'65 inches. The horncores 



1 'Quart. Jourii.,' vol. xx, p. 192; also Stevens, ' Flint Chips,' 8vo, 18/0, p. 30. 



