CHAPTER IV.

PART III.

FOSSIL REMAINS OF RUMINANTS.

DILUVIUM OF THE VALLEY OF THE THAMES-FOSSIL BOVIDE-BISON PRISCUS --BOS PRIMIGENIUS-BOS LONGIFRONS.

DILUVIUM OF THE VALLEY OF THE THAMES.-The banks of the Thames and of its tributary streams, are in great part composed of an ancient alluvial silt, or brick earth, many yards in thickness, which contains, in some localities, great numbers of fossil bones of Mammalia, of many extinct, and some recent species, with existing kinds of land and river shells. Among the latter there is a freshwater bivalve, a species of Cyrena, which is supposed to be identical with one that abounds in the river, at Alexandria; and an Unio, of which the living analogue inhabits the lakes of Auvergne in France.1

At Erith, on the south bank of the Thames, a spot well known for its beautiful sylvan scenery, this deposit attains an elevation of 40 feet above the level of the river; and at Maidstone, (ante, p. 302,) it is 60 feet above the Medway. At Grays, in Essex, opposite Gravesend, there are extensive cuttings of these deposits in the brick-fields, in which the following section is exposed. 1. Gravel and sand. 2. Loamy sand and brick-earth. 3. Ferruginous sand, shells, and gravel. 4. The Chalk, which is the foundation rock of the country.

From this locality alone have been obtained bones of the

See a highly interesting communication on these deposits, by John Morris, Esq. (of Kensington); "Magazine of Nat. Hist." vol. ii. p. 539.

Elephant, Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, Horse, Deer, Ox, Irish Elk, Bear, Hyæna, Vole, &c.

From Grays and Ilford in Essex, the fossil bones of ruminants in Wall-case F were chiefly obtained.

The specimens in this Case are too miscellaneous to admit of particular description, until they are properly arranged and numbered. They comprise skulls, jaws with teeth, and bones of the extremities, of Deer, Elk, Ox, &c. The only fossils that can be conveniently selected for description, are the crania and horns of the three species of Bos or Ox, whose remains are very generally distributed throughout the post-pliocene or diluvial deposits of Europe; and also in the bone-breccia, and in the ossiferous caverns.

FOSSIL BOVIDE, OR OXEN.-Distinguished from other ruminants by their strong and massy head, armed with horns having a cavernous core or pith, and extending laterally from the skull, the crania of the Bovidae are easily recognised. Their molar teeth, the crowns of which, as in the other ruminants, have double crescents, the convexity in the upper molars being internal, and in the lower external, are readily distinguished from those of the Elk and Deer, with which they are often intermingled, by the presence of a little column or pillar between the ridges of the crown, and which is of sufficient length to be worn down in common with the crescents, by mastication.

There are the remains of three well-known fossil species of Ox in this collection; and it is an interesting fact, that one of the species still exists, and that the others in all probability have died out, within the last thousand, or fifteen hundred years.

M. Pictet remarks, that the Aurochs are the only bovine animals ancient tradition assigns to Europe, and that their fossil remains prove they lived from a very remote antiquity; there is also another species, which is apparently the ancestor of our domestic Ox. Bones of this family are found in the upper tertiary or pliocene deposits of Montpellier, and Puyde-Dôme; and in the eocene of the Sewalik or Sub-Himalayan hills.

BISON PRISCUS; OR FOSSIL AUROCH. Wall-case F, and Wall-case in Room V.-In the Case before us there are several horn-cores, and on the top of the Case in Room V. a

fine cranium and horn-cores, of the great fossil Auroch or Bison; a species, according to Professor Owen, that except in its larger size, and in having longer and somewhat less bent horns, presents no satisfactory specific distinction, compared with the bones of the existing Lithuanian Auroch,' of which a living pair were lately exhibited in the Zoological Gardens, in the Regent's Park.2

The Lithuanian Auroch, which has been preserved from extinction solely by the protective laws of the Emperor, appears to have abounded in the forests of Europe when the Romans extended their conquests to the north,

LIGN. 77. SKULL AND HORN-CORES OF BISON and overran Germany.

PRISCUS. Front view.
(nat. size.)

differs from that of the Bos or Ox, in breadth of the forehead, and in the

LIGN. 78. SKULL AND HORN-CORES OF Bos

PRIMIGENIUS. Front view.

(nat. size.)

The skull in the subgenus Bison or Auroch, the convexity and greater horns being placed more anteriorly in relation to the supra-occipital ridge, and in the obtuse angle, and semicircular form of the occipital plane.

There is a cranium in the Museum, from Dantzig, which was described and figured by Klein in the "Philosophical Transactions."

BOS PRIMIGENIUS, OR GREAT FOSSIL OX. Wall-case F, Room V.

This fine skull, with its horn-cores nearly entire, is from

1 "Brit. Foss. Mammals and Birds."

2 Presented by the Emperor of Russia; in compliance with the solicitation of Sir Roderick Murchison.

the alluvial deposits near Athol, in Perthshire. It is figured and described in "British Fossil Mammals,"1 and I would refer the scientific inquirer to that work for a full exposition of its character and specific affinities: a brief notice will here suffice. "The concave forehead with its slight median longitudinal ridge, the origin of the horns at the extremities of the sharp crest which divides the frontal from the occipital regions, the acute angle at which these two surfaces of the cranium meet to form the above ridge,-all identify this specimen with the Bos primigenius described by Cuvier, Bojanus, and Fremery."

This skull is one yard long, and the span of the horns three feet six inches. The breadth of the forehead between the horns is 10 inches.

The remains of this gigantic Ox are not uncommon in the alluvial deposits of Scotland; as my friend Dr. Fleming, the distinguished Professor of Zoology in the New College of Edinburgh, pointed out 25 years ago. In England similar remains have been found in many localities; but this species appears to have been more abundant in Scotland down to a comparatively recent period; and therefore it may be concluded that the Bos primigenius maintained its ground longest in Scotland, before its final extinction.*

The remains of this species have been found in British tumuli, and also among the rejectamenta of Roman encampments. This large species of Ox, and its contemporary the Auroch, above described, doubtless inhabited these Islands, and the Continent of Europe, when the aboriginal human tribes first took possession of the land; and both have gradually become extinct.

Cuvier, and other eminent naturalists, regard this species as the origin of our domestic cattle; but Professor Owen is of opinion that the evidence is in favour of our herds being the

1 "Brit. Foss. Mammals," p. 498.

2 Ibid. p. 501.

3"British Animals," Edinburgh, 1828, p. 24.

An almost entire skeleton of the Bos primigenius was obtained from the alluvial deposit overlying the London clay at Herne Bay, and is now in the collection of Mr. Wickham Flower. The length of each horn-core in this specimen is 3 feet 3 inches along the outer curve; and the circumference at the base 18 inches. See "Brit. Assoc. Rep." 1843, p. 233.

descendants of a smaller primitive wild species of Bos, characterized by its long frontlet and short horns; of which there are part of a skull and horn-cores, and some detached bones in the Museum.

BOS LONGIFRONS (Owen).-Wall-case F.-The horns and skull of this species of Ox appear to have been first described from specimens found in the bogs of Ireland.' Similar remains have been obtained from the alluvial deposits of the valley of the Thames. In 1822, I received from G. B. Greenough, Esq. a horn of this species from Walton, in Essex, together with fragments of the antlers of the Irish-Elk, and horns of the great Auroch, which were found with it.

LIGN. 79. SKULL AND HORN-CORES OF
Bos LONGIFRONS. Front view.2

(nat. size.)

The length from the supraoccipital ridge to the nasal bones is 8 inches; the breadth of the

forehead 6 inches; span of the horn-cores from tip to tip 1 foot; length of the horn-core 4 inches."

But independently of this disparity in size, the Bos longifrons differs from the great Bos primigenius, by the smallness, shortness, and different form of the horns.

That the Bos longifrons was abundant in England during the Roman period, is proved by the occurrence of skulls and horns, and other parts of the skeleton, in several localities associated with remains of Roman art; as at Colchester, in 1849.4

I will conclude this notice with the following remarks of the Hunterian Professor on the question as to the species of Bos, from which the domestic breed has probably originated.

"In this field of conjecture, the most probable one will be

1 Oper. cit. p. 511.

2 From Professor Owen's figure of a specimen from Ireland. "Brit. Foss. Mamm." p. 508.

3 I have a specimen of a horn-core attached to a portion of the frontlet, which is 5 inches long. It was dredged up off the Essex coast with teeth of Elephants, and presented to me by Lord Londesborough. * See "Archæological Journal."