122 Notices of various Animal Remains 



products which it serves to increase and prepare ; and not 

 for ever to burst, periodically, in a wave of destruction upon 

 man and his works. — (Smithsonian Contributions to Know- 

 ledge, vol. ii.) 



Notices of various Animal Remains, as Bos longifrons, &c, 

 found with Roman Pottery, near Newstead, Roxburgh- 

 shire : with Notes in reference to the Origin of our Domes- 

 tic Cattle, and the Wild White Cattle of this Country. 

 By John Alexander Smith, M.D. Communicated by 

 the Author.* 



In the winter of 1846-7, during the excavation of a cutting 

 on the Hawick branch of the North British Railway, in the 

 neighbourhood of Melrose, and a little to the east of the vil- 

 lage of Newstead, a number of shafts or well-like pits were 

 come upon. There were about five or six of these of a large 

 size, two of which were built round the sides with stones, 

 and were about 20 feet deep, and about 2 feet 6 inches in 

 diameter ; the others, being simply dug out of the ground, 

 were about 4 feet in diameter, and varying from 15 to 18 feet 

 in depth. These pits were all found in a space of about 30 

 yards square, and among them were discovered some 15 or 

 16 small pits, about 3 vfeet deep and 3 feet in diameter, 

 which were lined throughout with a layer of whitish clay, 

 some 5 or 6 inches thick. All these pits were filled with a 

 black peaty-like stuff, apparently damp ashes and earth, and 

 in them were observed numerous pieces of Roman pottery, 

 consisting principally of the dark-coloured or smother-kiln 

 ware, coarser varieties of the gray, and yellowish, and also 

 some portions of the fine red or Samian ware, both plain 

 and embossed. Many of these, I have been informed, might 

 have been preserved entire, or the broken fragments col- 

 lected together, which, I regret to say, were carelessly 

 thrown with the earth and rubbish to form the adjoining 

 mound. I have been able to collect a few specimens of the 



# Read before the Royal Physical Society, Edinburgh, April 2, 1851. 



