On the Fossil British Oxen. Part I. Bos Urus, Cæsar

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Abstract
1. Introduction. Since the publication of Professor Owen's great work on the British Fossil Mammalia in the year 1846, no addition has been made to our knowledge of the British Fossil Oxen, while on the continent Professor Nilsson, of Lund, has described with a master's hand those of Scandinavia, and Dr. Rütimeyer, of Basle, those found in the Pile-works of Switzerland. In the meanwhile a large amount of information with reference to them has been obtained from the bone-caves and river-deposits of Britain, and from the peat-bogs and marls below of Britain and Ireland, for the most part unpublished or scattered about in disjointed fragments through the numerous scientific and archæological journals of the day. The relics of the food of the Roman legions stationed in Britain, and of the Romano-British, and the contents of their tombs, and especially many incidental notices of wild oxen in the historians from the time of Charlemagne down to the end of the 12th century, afford remarkable evidence as to the date down to which the wild oxen lived in continental Europe and in Britain. To collect all these isolated facts together, and to give an outline of the characters of each species or variety, and to define their range, so far as may be, in time, is the object of this essay. The three species which come under our notice are—1. The Great Urus, Bos urus of Julius Cæsar; 2. The Small Short-horn, Bos longifrons of Professor Owen; 3. The Bison, Bos bison

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