THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE OX. 
By Mr. W. F. Karkkkk, F.S’., Truro. 
[Continued from page 15.] 
In a previous paper we endeavoured to shew that the bovine 
race were probably the first created animals belonging to our 
domesticated mammalia, and we came to this conclusion from 
certain geological facts that cannot be well disputed — their 
fossil remains having been discovered embedded in strata evi- 
dently appertaining to a period far more remote than any of their 
present contemporaries. We have also numerous proofs that 
enable us with certainty to ascertain the size of the bovine race 
at this early period ; since theij’ bones in all these localities agree 
sufficiently — at least as far as our researches extend — to fix their 
stature to be considerably larger than any of the present domes- 
ticated race. The same is the case with the cervidae ; but not 
so with the equidae, the remains of the bones of horses not being 
above the standard of the wild horses of Asia and the middle 
sized unimproved breeds of the present day. In alluding to the 
early contemporaries of the ox, we stated that there was a species — 
the bison — which bore so close a resemblance to him, that, by 
many persons at the present period, they were supposed to be 
one and the same animal. It is our intention in this portion of the 
history of the ox to consider this subject. According to Cuvier, 
th$re are two distinct species, each equally ancient: one with slen- 
der limbs, resembling the German auroch or American bison ; the 
other with more massive members, like unto our domesticated ox. 
“ But it is only in their fossil state,” he says, “ that the latter 
kind can be distinctly traced ; and what he considers to be the 
true urus of the ancients — Caesar’s urus — the original of our do- 
mesticated and wild cattle.” One of the arguments adduced to 
support this position is, that the auroch or European bison has 
fourteen pairs of ribs, whilst the ox has but thirteen. Another 
reason which induced Cuvier to come to the conclusion was, that 
the front of the cranium of the ox is nearly flattened, and partly 
concave, whilst that of the auroch is rounded into convexity. It 
is square in the ox, its length being nearly equal to its breadth, 
taking for its base an imaginary line between the orbits. In the 
aurochs, with the same mode of measurement, it is broader than 
it is high, in the full proportion of three to one. Again, the 
horns are attached in the ox to the extremities of the most ele- 
vated salient line of the head, that which separates the occiput 
VOL. xv. t t 
