14 
THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE OX. 
away or entombed in the volcanic products. Cuvier describes 
some thirty species of animals that were found in the volcanic 
tofa — viz., nine ruminants, six pachydermata, one edentatum, 
twelve carnivora, and two rodentia. 
Ages rolled by, and the mists of the mountains and the rain pro- 
duced new springs, torrents, and rivers. A fertile soil gradually 
accumulated over the cooled lava, and beds of scoriae, to which 
the sediments of the ancient lakes, borne down by the streams, 
largely contributed. Another vegetation sprung up; — gigantic 
deer and oxen are again found on its surface, having for their co- 
temporaries the horse, the bear, the wolf, and the fox, with the 
elephant, the hyena, the rhinoceros, and the tiger. This period 
is supposed to have continued for a long time also : but changes 
were still going on ; and volcanic eruptions occasionally succeeded, 
and continued, geologically speaking, until a comparatively recent 
period. The temperature of the climate, too, became colder, 
and many of the last named animals passed away, and were suc- 
ceeded by the sheep, the goat, the dog, and the wolf ; and, 
lastly, the earliest race of mankind took possession, who soon 
began to exterminate those whom they could not subjugate to 
their dominion. 
We have confined ourselves hitherto to the soil of France, 
being the spot which the genius of Cuvier has again, as it were, 
called into existence. But it has been already proved that the 
same formations extend largely over the whole world ; we have 
every reason, therefore, to believe that the ox species must have 
extended, as it does now, over a very large surface. 
Ere we conclude, we will endeavour to give some authority for 
our opinion that the ox must be considered as belonging at one 
time to a different zoology from many of his present cotempora- 
ries. M. Desnoyers was the first that noticed the remains of 
palaeothereum and lopheodin in the marine formations of Tou- 
raine, mixed with bones of the tapir, mastodon, rhinoceros, &c. 
Cuvier states — and his is no mean authority — that he found the 
remains of the ox in the calcareous fresh-water formations of 
Orleans which incloses the debra of those extinct pachyder- 
mata. Again, in the miocene strata of Touraine and of Darm- 
stadt, there is, according to Mantell, an intermixture of the re- 
mains of the ox and the mastodon with the palaeothereum and 
anaplotherium. Mr. Murcheson also discovered, in Bavaria, 
bones of those extinct animals, mixed with the mastodon, rhi- 
noceros, and hippopotamus, &c. in lacustrine deposits, associated 
with fresh-watei shells. 
This forms a very material part of the history of the ox, since 
his remains are found embedded in deeper strata, and appertain- 
