68 The Ajnerican Geologist. August, i898 
ion that the larger cattle of western Europe at least are the de- 
scendants of Bos primigenius modified in many respects by re- 
stricted range but still more by the domination of man. Owen 
on the other hand thought that the tame ox of western Eu- 
rope was probably derived from the already domesticated 
cattle of the Roman colonists. Baron Cuvier and Prof. Bell 
believed that the urus was, in part at least, the ancestor of our 
domestic breeds. It was the opinion of Prof. Nilsen that the 
large cattle of the Netherland and Holstein sprang from this 
animal. 
In regard to Bos longifrons Owen wrote in 1847 that it 
co-existed with Megaceros in Ireland and with Megaceros, 
Rhinoceros, Elephas, Hyena, etc., in England. "Remains of 
this species have been found in ancient places of sepulture and 
so associated with British and Roman remains as to leave little 
doubt of its having survived as a species many of the mam- 
mals with which it was associated in the Pleistocene period."* 
Dawkins, in his second paper ,t combats this view of Owen 
that B. longifrons was a Pleistocene species and asserts that it 
had not yet been found to have existed before the prehistoric 
age ; in the bone caves and alluvia of which it is found abund- 
antly, and he also asserts that it is the ancestor of the small 
Highland and Welsh breeds. 
The most important contribution to our knowledge of this 
subject was made by Dr. Jos. Leidy,J of Philadelphia, in his 
memoir on the extinct species of the American ox, published 
in volume \' of the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge 
in the year 1852. In this memoir a review and resume of the 
literature of the subject in the United States may be found. 
Dr. Leidy wrote that remains of extinct species of ox are 
quite abundant in the post-pliocene deposits of North Amer- 
ica. He notes that such remains are numerous and are in- 
digenous to all the continents excepting South America and 
Australia. The first distinct species of extinct American ox 
was announced to the world by Mr. Rembrandt Peale. This 
was based upon the specimen presented by Dr. Samuel 
Brown to the museum of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural 
*Qiuirt. Jour. Geo!. Soc. Lon. IV, 45. 
■Mbid, XXIII, p. 184. 
JPhil. Mag., 1803. XV, 32s, pi. VI. 
