474 



Europe of the Bos primigenius, and still more so as compared to the 

 latest date of the Megaeeros hihernicm. All of those races of humpless 

 taurine cattle would interbreed and combine with the races of humped 

 cattle (which latter he believed to be of African rather than of Asiatic 

 origin), as also with the sub-bisontine Yak ; and, doubtless, likewise 

 with the three or four species of flat-horned taurine cattle of South- 

 Eastern Asia ; but certainly not with the Buffaloes, nor with the ge- 

 nuine Bisons — one of which is the so-called Buffalo of North America, 

 from which the name of the great city of " Buffalo," upon the shores of 

 Lake Erie, is derived. Before he concluded about Bos, he would offer 

 yet a few remarks. 



Ear away in India, his attention had been attracted by a paper from 

 a gentleman that he was now proud to call his friend — Dr. Wilde — and 

 he had long wished to examine certain skulls which Dr. Wilde had 

 treated of, and which he had now determined, to his complete satisfac- 

 tion, to be those of Bos frontosus. There was a small particular, or cha- 

 racter, which generally distinguished a wild herbivorous animal from a 

 tame one, and this was a certain incrustation of brown tartar npon the 

 teeth, which he did not find in the porcine relics at Uriconium, but which 

 he thought at first he did find upon Irish specimens of Bos frontosus, 

 even though the mark or blow of the wedge was through the fore- 

 head. That character was observable even in the more completely ve- 

 getarian Quadrumana, as Semnopithecus and Colobus, and even in the 

 Orang-utan. But after examining the Irish bovine remains more atten- 

 tively, he had noticed a ferruginous deposit from the peat, which might 

 easily be mistaken for the incrustration of brown tartar that he had 

 spoken of. In the one case there would be traces of parasitic life under 

 the microscope — not so in the other case ; and the absence of that par- 

 ticular kind of tartar upon the teeth indicated a tame animal rather than 

 a wild one. The incrustation from the peat covered the whole tooth, at 

 least as much of it as was out of the bony alveolus ; whereas the tartar 

 incrustation was only upon that portion of the tooth that had not been im- 

 bedded in the gum. The latter was conspicuously present in sundry teeth 

 of Megaeeros hihernicus and of Cervus elaphus. By the way, he would remark 

 that the state or condition of preservation of the osseous remains of ani- 

 mals at Uriconium was something wonderful for bones that had been in 

 the ground for two thousand years. But, whereas the mould of an ordinary 

 grave-yard was somewhat acidulous, that of Uriconium was alkaline ; 

 and so the phosphates and carbonates of lime had not been dissolved 

 awaj^, and even much of gelatine remained in them. The bones usu- 

 ally resembled those found about a recent abattoir or slaughter house. 

 Dr. Blyth had just examined a very considerable number of skulls of 

 the Bos longifrons; and he was struck with the vast preponderance of 

 females among them, even as, mutatis mutandis, the female skull of Me- 

 gaeeros was supposed to be comparatively rare. ISTothing was more easy 

 of explanation in either case. In the instance of the Megaeeros the 

 skulls of hinds had been found over and over again, and had been tossed 

 aside as horses' skulls ; perhaps, not having the grand horns to attract 



