66 THE OX AND ITS KINDRED 
Southwards the aurochs ranged as far as Crete and 
Algeria ; its Algerian representative has been de- 
scribed as a separate race under the name of B. tawus 
mauretanicus. Skulls and other remains of an 
extinct wild ox {B. nainadicus), apparently nearly 
related to the aurochs and of huge size, have been 
obtained from the gravels of the Narbada valley, 
in central India. In the typical form of this 
Narbada wild ox the bony cores of the horns were 
cylindrical, as in the aurochs, and likewise with a 
marked forward direction, but in some specimens 
they are more or less elliptical in section, thereby 
showing an approximation to the existing Indian 
wild ox, or gaur (B. gaurus). 
As regards the habits of the aurochs, these can in 
the main be inferred only from those of British park- 
cattle, forming the subject of the next chapter, and 
of the European domesticated breeds, most of which 
are probably derivatives of the old wild ox. From 
Ceesar's account, and likewise from casual remarks of 
later historians, the aurochs, and, no doubt, the bull in 
particular, was a ferocious animal, ready to charge at 
a moment's notice, and endowed with great speed. 
The old bulls, except during the pairing season, were 
doubtless solitary; and as all cattle are mainly 
grazers, it is probable that both the solitary bulls 
and the herds frequented the more open parts of the 
forests, where there was abundance of grass in the 
glades. Bulls may be presumed to have possessed 
the roaring bellow characteristic of their European 
domesticated descendants, while the cows lowed in 
the fashion of those of the modern breeds. Both 
sexes may be inferred to have been in the habit of 
standing knee-deep in water for hours at a time in 
