THE GEOLOGIST. 



DECEMBER 1862. 



BOS EEONTOSUS. 



By the side of a cast of the large-fronted ox of Scandinavia, in the 

 case of fossil Bovida? in the British Museum, is a specimen found in 

 BawdseyBog, near Felixstow, in Suffolk, referred to that same species 

 — the only example recorded in England, if exhibition in the cases of 

 our national institution be a record, for it has been nowhere figured 

 or described. 



That the determination of the species is correct there can be little 

 doubt, as the specimen was seen and examined by Professor Nilsson 

 on his late visit to this country, and the correctness of the determi- 

 nation was verified by him. It is to this, one of the most in- 

 teresting but least known species, that we now w^ish to draw atten- 

 tion. It is interesting because it was probably a species of higher 

 antiquity that lived on to be coasval with the early human races 

 whose relics are found in the deposits of that remarkable border-land 

 between the last geological ages of the Prehuman era and the oblite- 

 rated first chapters of Human History. 



In the ages which elapsed immediately previous to the deposition 

 of the glacial drift, and subsequently to that period, extending down 

 even to the modern historical era, seven species of fossil Bovi(]ie 

 ranged the pastures of England, as will be more clearly seen in the 

 annexed table : — 



Distribution of Bovidte in Great Britain. 



fBos gigauteus s. autiquus, Owen 

 \ Bos priiuigenius, Bojanus 

 I Bos tVoutosus, Nilsso7i 

 [_B()s longifroiis, Owen . 



{Bison priscus, Oiveyi 

 Bison minor, Oweti . 

 Bubcilus nioschalus, Owen 



Pliocene 

 Fresh- 

 water. 



Post- 

 pliocene 

 Marl. 



Glacial 

 Drift. 



Cave 

 De- 

 posits. 



Histo- 

 rical 

 Period. 



VOL. V. 



3 L 



