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.— i^^>s^ Letter-hook 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, 12J 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 Csesar in his ' Commentaries,' Lib. vi. c. 5, by the 
name of Urus."" 
The cranium No. 2 is tolerably entire, but, like all the 
others, the lower jaw is a wanting. 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 
