Page:Excavations at the Kesslerloch.djvu/28

Rh there is much probability in the supposition, that our Swiss domestic cattle were derived immediately from the tame cattle of the lake-dwellings, with which the modern race of great cattle in the Swiss valleys have far more resemblance than they have with the uri. The urus was at least about a quarter larger than a great cow. The horns sprang with a broad base in front of the forehead, then bent very decidedly backwards and outwards, and then sharply forwards and upwards.

Nearly allied to the Bos primigenius is the Wisent, Aurochs, (Bison priscus, or Bos bison). Of this animal we have found a considerable number of bones of the feet, some teeth both of old and young animals, a hip-bone and humerus, a large number of pieces of broken bone, a few fragments of the skull, and two horn-cores, which measure a foot both in length and in their greatest circumference. The remains of this animal were consequently much more numerous than those of the allied species last mentioned, as we may calculate the number of individuals to have amounted to six. At the present day the Bison priscus is the largest mammalian in Europe, for it is 7 feet high, 13 feet long, and attains a weight of from 18 to 20 cwt. The district which it inhabits in Europe is very limited: for it occurs in Russia, but in fact only in the forest of Bialowies, where it is under the special protection of the Russian Emperor, to whom we are indebted for having preserved this animal from extinction. In the earlier ages it was much more widely distributed, and was found not only over a great part of Europe and Asia, but also over North America. In the eighteenth century it was to be found in Transylvania. For some ages it was living even in Switzerland, as may be proved by the remains found in the deposits of gravel and in the lake-dwellings. Eckehard mentions its occurrence as a wild animal near St. Gall in the year 1000. In England and Scandinavia, and generally in the far north, it has been long extinct, so that there it belongs to prehistoric ages. It is distinguished from the Bos primigenius by the hump on the fore part of its back, and by its horns, which are somewhat small, and at first bent outwards and downwards, and then upwards and forwards.

A third kind of ox has also been found, namely, the tame ox, or Bos taurus, of which, however, only two phalanges have occurred, and these seem to be identical with those of the so- called marsh-cow of the lake-dwellings. Though these bones show no difference either in colour or state of preservation from the others, yet I cannot but think that they do not belong to