74 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



obtained iD the southern counties of Scotland. Dr J. A. 

 Smith informs me that about forty years ago many crania 

 were discovered in these counties by the diggers for marl. 



Mr Parkinson also, in his " Organic Remains,"* states that 

 he has in his possession specimens of Bovine Fossils obtained 

 in Dumfriesshire. Professor Owen is of opinion that the Bos 

 primigenius " maintained its ground longest in Scotland before 

 its final extinction." This opinion is founded on the very 

 recent character of the osseous substance. 



It is probable that the femur, scapula, humerus, rib, and 

 vertebra, were found in the same deposit, and along with the 

 least perfect of the above-described crania ; for they present 

 in their deep brown colour corresponding appearances exter- 

 nally. If such is the case, we shall be justified in regarding 

 them as bones belonging to the Bos primigenius. On con- 

 trasting them with the corresponding bones of the modern 

 Bos inhabiting this country, I find that they present the 

 same anatomical characters, only on a much larger scale, on 

 account of their greater size, This is seen especially in the 

 spines, trochanters, tuberosities, and other ridges and promi- 

 nences for the attachment of muscles and ligaments, which 

 are all developed in an exaggerated form, and indicate most 

 prominently what the great muscular development of the 

 animal must have been. These bones are all in an admirable 

 state of preservation, the osseous characters being distinctly 

 marked, and the various articular surfaces smooth, and pre- 

 senting their divisions into distinct facets as clearly as in the 

 recent bones. As a means of arriving at a proper estimate of 

 the great size of these bones when contrasted with those of 

 the common ox, I subjoin certain comparative measurements 

 which I have made, premising that the bones of the common 

 ox which I have taken, although obtained from a young speci- 

 men in which the epiphyses are only partially united to the 

 shafts by ossification, have yet, from their size, evidently be- 

 longed to an animal of a large breed. The fossil bones, on 

 the other hand, have all belonged to an adult animal, for the 

 epiphyses are completely ossified to the shafts. 



* Vol. iii. 



