Notes on the Crania of the Bos primigenius. 113 



think it worth while to trouble you with them. If anything 

 deserving the attention of your Society occurs in this part 

 of the country, I shall assuredly transmit it to you. Mrs 

 Robertson joins me in best compliments to Mrs Cairncross 

 and the family — with, dear Sir, your humble servant, — 

 Thomas Robertson. — First Letter-book of Soc. Ant. Scot., 

 p. 628. 



The skull was presented to the Society at its meeting on 

 the 17th July 1781 ; and the following reference to it is re- 

 corded in the Minute-book, vol. i., p. 72: — 



" Mr George Cairncross presented, from the Rev. Thomas 

 Robertson of Selkirk, the bones of the head and flints of 

 the horns of a large animal dug out of a marle-pit near Sel- 

 kirk, at a place called Whitmuirhall. The circumference of 

 each flint at the base is 14J inches ; the length of that on the 

 right 27 inches, of the other 28 inches ; the distance between 

 the sockets of the eyes 11 J inches ; the breadth of the front, 

 which is quite flat, from the sides immediately over the sockets 

 of the eyes, 12 J inches ; the depth from the top of the front 

 to the top of the sockets of the eyes, 10 inches ; and from the 

 top of the front to the upper part of the insertion of the car- 

 tilage of the nose 13 inches. This appears to be the animal 

 described by Julius Csesar in his "Commentaries," Book vi. 

 c. 5, by the name of Urus." And the Secretary, Mr James 

 Cumming, in a letter dated 25th July, informs the Rev. Mr 

 Robertson that the skull was presented to the Society, and 

 "in the opinion of some able naturalists among us, it is 

 believed to belong to that species of animal described by 

 Julius Caesar in his 4 Commentaries,' Lib. vi. c. 5, by the 

 name of Urns." 



The cranium No. 2 is tolerably entire, but, like all the 

 others, the lower jaw is awanting. It was dug out of a moss 

 in the county of Galloway, and was presented to the Museum 

 of the Society by the Rev. David M'Robert, in the year 1782. 

 In this cranium two of the molars remain in the alveolar 

 sockets. It is referred to in the Minute-book, p. 205, July 

 12, 1782, as follows :— 



" There was presented, from the Rev. David M'Robert, the 



VOL. II. P 



