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 Notes on the ancient cattle of Scotland 
 
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NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 587 
 
 X. 
 
 NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OP SCOTLAND :— 
 
 I. THE SMALL SHORT-HORNED OX, BOS LONGIFRONS, OWEN. 
 II. THE GREAT LONG-HORNED OX, THE URUS, BOS PMIMIGENIUS. 
 BOJANUS, AND OAVEN. 
 By JOHN ALEXANDER SMITH, M.D., V.P. S.A. Scot., Etc. (Plate XLI.) 
 
 It has been suggested that some notes on the ancient Cattle of Scot- 
 land, especially as represented by their remains in the Museum of the 
 Society, might not be altogether uninteresting to the Fellows ; as a con- 
 tinuation of the papers on the ancient animals of the country, the Rein- 
 Deer, the Elk, and the Irish Elk, already published in the Proceedings 
 of the Society. The Society has accordingly given me permission to 
 repriat some papers read by me many years ago before another Society, 
 and published where they are not now easily accessible, and probably have 
 not been seen by the Eellows of this Society. These notices describe some 
 of the remains of the ancient cattle preserved in the Museum of the 
 Society, and I shall supplement them with details of some of the speci- 
 mens since presented to the Museum, and others found in different parts of 
 Scotland ; giving also a short sketch of their Geological Age and their 
 Distribution, so as to enable us to judge somewhat of the previous exist- 
 ence and prevalence of these animals in our country. 
 
 I. THE SMALL SHORT-HORNED OX, BOS LONCflFRONS, Owen. 
 
 The following paper gives some details of the Eoman remains discovered 
 at Newstead, Roxburghshire, and of the various animal remains found. It 
 is, however, especially taken up with the description of the ancient 
 short-horned cattle ; and I think it best, instead of re-arranging, simply 
 to give it in detail, more especially as all the remains described were 
 presented by me to the Museum of the Society, where they are now 
 preserved. Some notes are also given of the so-called wild white cattle 
 stiU existing in the country. 
 
 (The attention of the public has, since this paper was read, been called 
 in an especial manner to these white cattle by the recent visit of H.RH. 
 
588 PUOCEEDIXGS OF THE SOCIETY, JUXE 10. 1872. 
 
 Tlie Prince of Wales to ChiUingham Castle, Northumberland. The account 
 of his shooting there a wild buU, on the 10th October 1872, has been 
 published in all the newspapers, especially in the " Illustrated London 
 Xews," of 19th October and 16th November 1872, where figures are given 
 of ChiUingham Castle, the Cattle, &c. The writer states that " it was 
 
 a fine bull, seven years old, and weighing 70 stones It exists, we 
 
 believe, nowhere but at ChiUingham ; in Scotland, it is to be found in 
 the demesne of Cadzow, at Hamilton on the Clyde." — P. 476.) 
 
 The second Xotice gives details of portions of additional crania of 
 these short-horned cattle, found in the same locality. 
 
 (1.) XOTICES OF VARIODS AnIMAL EeJIAIXS, AS THE SSIALL ShORT-HoBNED 
 
 Ox,Bos longifrons,&c., found with PiOman Pottery, sear :N'£WSTEad, 
 Eoxburghshire; with Xotes in beferexce to the Origin of our 
 DosiESTic Cattle, axd the " TTild TThite Cattle " of this 
 Cocntrt. By John Alexander Smith, il.D. (With Plate.) ^ 
 
 In the winter of 1846-47, during the excavation of a cutting on the 
 Hawick branch of the Xorth British Eailway, in the neighbourhood of 
 Melrose, and a little to the east of the village of Xewstead, a number of 
 shafts or weU-like pits were come upon. There were about five or six of 
 these of a large size, two of which were built round the sides with stones, 
 and were about 20 feet deep, and about 2 feet 6 inches in diameter ; the 
 others, being simply dug out of the ground, were about 4 feet in diameter, 
 and varying from 15 to 18 feet in depth. These pits were all found in a 
 space of about 30 yards square, and among them were discovered some 
 15 or 16 small pits, about 3 feet deep and 3 feet in diameter, which were 
 lined throughout with a layer of whitish clay, some 5 or 6 inches thick. 
 All these pits were filled with a black peaty-like stuflF, apparently damp 
 ashes and earth, and in them were observed numerous pieces of Eomau 
 pottery, consisting principally of the dark-coloured or smother-kiln ware, 
 coarser varieties of the graj-, and yellowish, and also some portions of the 
 fine red or Samian ware, both plain and embossed. Many of these, I have 
 
 ' Eead before the Royal Physical Society, Edinburgh, April 2, ISol, and published 
 in the "Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal," New Series, Vol. lir. No. cvii. 
 January 1853. 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 589 
 
 been informed, might have been preserved entire, or the broken fragments 
 collected together, which, I regret to say, were carelessly thrown with 
 the earth and rubbish to form the adjoining mound. I have been 
 able to collect a few specimens of the different kinds of ware (some of 
 which I exhibit), and have presented them to the Mnseum of the Scottish 
 Antiquaries. Several silver and brass coins, of the Emperors Vespasian, 
 Trajan, and Hadrian, were also found, and the bones of various animals. 
 
 I shall not enter here into the more strictly antiquarian details of the 
 subject (which I have already, some time ago, fully described in another 
 place — see Proceedings Soc. Ant. Scot. vol. i. p. 28, &a., and Archwologia 
 Scotica, vol. iv. p. 422), farther than to say, that the popular idea of 
 these pits having been wells seems rather absurd, if we consider the 
 number of them clustered together, as well as their near neighbourhood 
 to the Eiver Tweed. English archa3ologists call pits of this kind rubbish- 
 holes or dirt pits, the name sufficiently pointing out their supposed use ; 
 but it certainly seems to me very strange, that the Eomans should have 
 taken so much apparently unnecessary trouble for such a purpose, as the 
 land would surely not be so very valuable in those ancient days, and the 
 Eiver Tweed, running at no great distance from them on the north, 
 would seem to afford a simple means for carrying off anything of the 
 kind. I am inclined to the opinion, from considering all the circum- 
 stances of the case, that these had been the burying-places of the ancient 
 Roman town, which I believe to have existed in the immediate neigh- 
 bourhood, and that in these pits were deposited the inurned ashes gathered 
 from the extinguished funeral piles of the dead ; the remains of sacrificed 
 animals being then apparently laid over them as their most appropriate 
 covering. However this may be, pits of a corresponding kind have been 
 discovered in various places in England ; but, as far as I am aware, this 
 is only the second time anything at all resembling them has been noticed 
 or described as occurring in Scotland. A little to the east of these pits a 
 bed or stratum of considerable size, and consisting apparently of burnt 
 earth, mixed with wood charcoal, was observed, and a little farther to 
 the east another of smaller size was also come upon; and in both of these, 
 various pieces of pottery, and the bones and teeth of animals, were dis- 
 covered. I regret my not being able to give a full and satisfactory account 
 of the various animal remains which these beds and pits contained, as 
 
;i90 
 
 rHOCEEOIXCS OF THE SOCIETY. .JI"XE 10. IS72. 
 
 most of them were carele.sisly dug out liy the rougli hands of the '• navvies, 
 and added "ivith the earth to form an adjoining mound. Those I have 
 been ahle to collect and examine are the following : — 
 
 In the first place, however. I must notice the discovery of a Human 
 Sl-elefon in a pit, about 3 feet in diameter, and 10 feet in depth, a little 
 to the soutli-Tvest of the large built pit.?. It vs-as found standing erect, 
 with a spear beside it ; the head of the spear was of iron, 14 inches long, 
 
 Iron Spear-ln-ad, found witli Human Skeleton, in Roman shaft. Newstead, Ro.xburgh- 
 sliire.' (In the JIuseum of the Society.) 
 
 and 1-^- inch broad at its widest part, and traces of the handle still 
 remained, the rotten wood falling ont on the spear being touched. The 
 skull alone was preserved, and, through the kindness of my friend, Dr 
 Brown, ^[elrose, is now in my possession (since presented to the ]\Iuseura 
 
 Human Sknll. found in Konian shaft near Xewstead. Roxlmri^hshire.' 
 
 of the Scottish Antiquaries\ It is well formed, of moderate size, of the 
 ("aucasiau type, with strongly-marked muscular impressions, and the 
 
 • I am indebted for ilie nse of tliese woodcuts, whieli are given in Dr "Wilson's 
 " rvehistoric Annafs." to Messrs Coustalde & Co.. Pnldi.shers, See., Edinburgh. 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 591 
 
 teeth generally sound and little worn, being evidently the skull of an 
 adult male in the prime of life. An examination of it was carefully made 
 by Dr I). "Wilson and myself, for his interesting paper " On the Crania 
 of the Tumuli" (read to Brit. Assoc, here), and the following are the 
 details of its various dimensions, according to the terms used by Dr 
 Mortoninthe " Crania Americana:" — Longitudinal diameter, 7 in. 31in.; 
 parietal diameter, 5 in. 4 lin. ; frontal diameter, 4 in. 6 lin. ; vertical 
 diameter, 5 in. 4 lin.; intermastoid arch, 14 in. 7 J lin.; intermastoid 
 arch, from upper root of zygomatic process, 12 in.; intermastoid line, 
 5 in. 3^ lin. ; do., from upper root of zygomatic process, 5 in. 6 lin. ; 
 occipito-frontal arch, 14 in. 4 lin.; do., from occipital protuberance to 
 root of nasal bones, 12 in. 9 lin.; horizontal periphery, 20 in. 6 lin.; 
 relative capacity (which is here assumed by adding together the longitu- 
 dinal and vertical diameters and the horizontal periphery), 33 in. 1 lin. 
 
 If this skeleton, from the place where it was found, be considered that 
 of a Roman citizen, it must, in my opinion, have belonged to the later 
 period of their occupation of this district ; as it was not till then that 
 the practice of burning the dead began to be given np, and the simpler 
 rite of inhumation reintroduced. It is not improbable it may belong 
 to a much later period ; but on this difficult subject it is no easy matter 
 to decide. 
 
 Of the various remains of the lower animals which were collected, the 
 first I shall notice has been well called " the noble associate of man," — 
 I refer to the Horse, Eqirns caballus, Linn., to which I consider this 
 back part of a mutilated skull to have belonged, and which seems to have 
 been an animal of rather a small size. 
 
 The next is the Common Hog, Siis scrofa, Linn., of which a small 
 lower jaw was preserved. It is easily distinguished by its peculiar form, 
 the posterior grinders being oblong, with tuberculated crowns, and the 
 incisors sloping forwards. 
 
 The third animal which I have to notice is represented merely by a 
 portion of a round antler, apparently of the Common Stag or Eed Deer, 
 Cermis elaphus, Linn. It seems to be a part of the first or brow antler ; 
 and I was informed, that tolerably perfect antlers, said to be those of 
 the red deer, had also been found ; but these I was unable to get for 
 examination. 
 
592 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JUNE 10, 1872. 
 
 The other remains consisted of skulls, and apparently other bones of 
 small-sized Short-horned Oxen, which I shall attempt more particularly to 
 describe. I need hardly allude to the well-known fact of the previous 
 existence in Britain of two species of enormous wild oxen, — tlie one the 
 shaggy Bison, the other the large-horned and mighty TJrus {Bos primi- 
 genius, Bojan.), an animal, according to Cresar, almost equalling the 
 elephant in bulk ; but, in addition to these, there were also short-horned 
 cattle of a very inferior size, which have been proved to have existed in 
 Britain from the period of the newer pliocene formation, their remains 
 being found in drifts and fresh-water deposits, along with those of the 
 mammoth and the rhinoceros, and in the caves of the same period, — the 
 prey, it may have been, of tigers, bears, and hyrenas ; as weU as through 
 the deposits of the alluvium ; down to their existence in the bogs, and 
 among the traces of men in the latest of all the formations ; being spared 
 apparently for man's sake, while their dread contemporaries of earlier 
 times had passed from the face of the earth. After this, however, they 
 also seem to disappear as a distinct species, still existing, it may be, in 
 some of the many varieties of our present domesticated ox. 
 
 This small short-horned ox Professor Owen has designated the Bos 
 longifrons. "It belongs," the learned. Professor says in his excellent 
 work on " British Possil Mammals," " like our present cattle, to the sub- 
 genus Bos, as is shown by the form of tbe forehead, and by the origin of 
 the horns from the extremities of the occipital ridge ; but it differs from 
 the contemporary Bos primigenius, not only by its great inferiority of 
 size, being smaller than the ordinary breeds of domestic cattle, but also 
 by the horns being proportionally much smaller and shorter, as well as 
 differently directed, and by the forehead being less concave. The horn 
 cores of the Bos longifrons describe a single short curve outwards and 
 forwards in the plane of the forehead, rarely rising above that plane, 
 more rarely sinking below it ; the cores have a very rugged exterior, and 
 are usually flat at their upper part." ( Vide Owen's " Brit. Fos. Mammal.") 
 With regard to the horn cores. Professor Owen seems to allow some little 
 latitude both as to their size and curvature. In alluding (p. 501) to the 
 Urus being distinguished from the Bos taunis by its great size and the 
 direction of the horns, he quotes from Cuvier the following remark, 
 " The naturalist weU knows that such characters are neither constant nor 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 593 
 
 proper for the distinction of species ;" and accordingly he admits that 
 the Urus was subject to some variety in these respects ; and, in tho 
 passage just quoted, he also appears to allow a certain amount of range 
 in the curvature of the horn cores of the Bos longifrons ; for he says, as 
 already mentioned, they "rarely rise ahove the plane of the forehead, 
 and more rarely fall below it." 
 
 The four skulls in my possession (which I now exhibit) seem to corre- 
 spond very considerably with these general characters of the Bos longi- 
 frons, if we consider an allowance made for the slightly upward bend of 
 the horn cores of one at least of them, while they agree with the forward 
 curvature, and scarcely rise above the plane of the forehead. Indeed, 
 two of them (Nos. III. and IV.) seem very closely to resemble the 
 description given by Professor Owen, and the horns of No. IV. especially 
 correspond ; the other two, Nos. I. and II. {vide Plate), although perhaps 
 slightly different, and of rather a larger size, still agree considerably in 
 most particulars ; the largest of these. No. I., being probably a bull, as well 
 from its larger size and more strongly-marked horn cores, as from the pro ■ 
 portionaUy broader and squarer forehead, which is believed to be charac- 
 teristic of the male ; and the others being in all probability cows. I 
 would be inclined to account for their slight differences upon the sup- 
 position of these skulls being the remains of cattle which had become 
 domesticated at that early period in our country's history, when the 
 Eoman soldier was a dweller in the south of Scotland; and should they 
 be considered as not absolutely identical with the Bos longifrons, they 
 seem apparently so closely alUed as to afford a strong reason for believing 
 it to be, at all events, the native source from which they had been derived. 
 I have made out a table of their different dimensions, as compared with 
 those given by Professor Owen, and it will be seen how very closely they 
 correspond {vide Table). One of the skulls. No. IV., seems to have been 
 sawn through the middle, and, from the appearance of some of the others, 
 you might fancy the animals had been killed by the heavy blow of an 
 axe, or some such instrument, striking them obliquely immediately 
 behind the horns. On examining these skulls, I have been struck by 
 what appears to me to be the large relative size of their prominent orbits, 
 as contrasted with those of the Bos primigeniiis, and even of our domestic 
 cattle. In the Bos primigenius, indeed, the orbit seems to be small in 
 
594 PEOCEKDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JUXE 10, 1S72. 
 
 relation to the immense bulk of the skull, and I may also notice the 
 peculiar prominence in the middle of their supra-occipital ridge, espe- 
 cially in the skulls Xos. III. and IV. Since writing these notes, I have 
 read a very interesting paper by Professor jSTilsson of Lund, in the "Annals 
 and jMagazine of Xatural History," vol. iL of Second Series, " On the 
 Extinct and Existing Bovine Animals of Scandinavia," in which he gives a 
 detailed account of the characters of the Bos longifrons of Professor Owen, 
 or Dwarf Ox, a few of which I may enumerate here. He saySj " As far 
 as we yet know, it is the smallest of the ox tribe that had lived wild in 
 our portion of the globe ; the whole length, from the muzzle to the end 
 of the rump bone, he supposes to have been about 6 feet 8 inches, and, 
 from the slender make of its bones, it had rather resembled a deer than 
 an ox. The forehead upwards over the eyes is flattened, with an edge 
 going along the frontal seam, which is most prominent upwards, and ends 
 with a rounded indenting backwards. Between the eyes is a more or 
 less considerable depression, above which there is often a rising, and 
 beneath which lies the incision for the nasal bones, which go right up to 
 the line drawn between the lower borders of the orbits. (Thus the 
 frontal bones are not longer in this species than they are in the Urus or 
 Taunis.) The horn cores are small, cylindrical, short, curved only in one 
 direction forwards ; sometimes, though seldom, downwards, in the plane 
 of the forehead. The form of the temporal cavity is, behind, transverse- 
 obtuse ; before, oblique-pointed ; its hinder part (to the angle above the 
 joint of the under jaw), only one-fourth part broader than the forepart. 
 The anterior palatine apertiu'es lancet-shaped, at the back oblique inward- 
 pointed ; the back ones lie between the palate bones ; the nape transverse, 
 upwards with a vertical indenting, downwards with a vertical edge over 
 the circular foramen of the nape. The skull of this species varies con- 
 siderably in size, and even something in form, according to its age and 
 sex. The species, however, is always known by a protuberance upon the 
 upper part of the forehead in front, and an indenting backwarda" He 
 gives a table, also, of the usual dimensions of young specimens, which I 
 have added to mine, to show their general correspondence. 
 
 These four skulls then (before you), which were found near the viUage 
 of Xewstead, Roxburghshire, seem to me to agree so very closely with all 
 these distinctive characters as to prove them to have been very nearlv 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 595 
 
 allied indeed, if not absolutely identical with, the Bos longifrons; and 
 should you agree ■with me in this opinion, then I may say, I consider 
 these as of course proving their existence in the south of Scotland at the 
 time of the Eoman occupation of the country, of which, as far as I am 
 aware, these skulls are the only evidence. 
 
 The Origin of our ordinan/ Domestic Cattle. — The examination of the 
 skulls of cattle, which had undoubtedly existed in our country at a very 
 remote period, naturally suggests some queries as to the origin of our 
 domestic cattle, — a question of considerable interest as well as difficulty, 
 but into it I do not intend to enter farther than to bring forward a few 
 notes bearing upon this interesting subject. 
 
 Professor Nilsson, in his paper abeady alluded to, describes what 
 he considers to have been an additional species of extinct and fossil ox, 
 found in this country as well as in Sweden ; this he calls the Bos fron- 
 tosus,^ and to it, in passing, I must aUude. It is distinguished, he says, 
 by the ridge of the occiput rising high in the centre, convex ; the 
 horns, which rest on longer pedicles than among any known species of 
 ox, are short, and directed outwards and backwards, and then bend 
 forwards. The size of the skulls denote an animal which, although much 
 less than the B. primigenius, is yet considerably larger than the B. 
 longifrons. It belongs, he says, to the country's oldest post-pliocene 
 period ; and with regard to the question of the origin of our present 
 cattle, the Professor considers that a race of our domestic cattle have pro- 
 bably been derived from each of the three species he describes of the sub- 
 genus Bos with the flat forehead; the B. primigenius, B. frontosus, and B. 
 longifrons; none of them, according to the general opinion of naturalists, 
 being derived from the Bison or Aurochs, which is quite different in its 
 characters, and never pairs with the domestic cow. 
 
 Other naturalists, however, consider the Bos primigenius as the origin 
 from which our domestic cattle are derived. I entirely concur with the 
 opinion of Professor Owen, in considering it highly improbable, in fact 
 almost impossible, that the enormous and savage Uri, of which Csesar 
 says, " great is their strength and great their speed, and they spare neither 
 
 1 Professor Owen considers the B. frojitosiis a variety of the B. longifrons. See 
 p. 618. 
 
596 PllOCEEDlXGS OF THE SOCIETY, JUNE 10, 1872. 
 
 mau nor beast wliicli they catch sight of;" and that the man who killed 
 the greatest number of them, even by the pitfaU, brings the horns as an 
 evidence of his prowess, and is highly applauded by his countrymen ; and 
 so savage is their nature, that, " though taken never so young, they cannot 
 be tamed" (lib. vi. 27, 28). To suppose beasts like these not only 
 tamed, in opposition to such decided evidence to the contrary, but also 
 so strangely degenerated into the comparatively small sized and placid ox 
 of the present day, seems to me really past belie£ 
 
 "V\"ith regard to the opinion, that the domesticated British cattle were 
 originally derived from those of the Roman colonists, we must recol- 
 lect that we have evidence which proves the existence of numerous herds 
 of domesticated cattle in Britain before ever Ciesar's troops set foot in the 
 country. This Professor Owen seems rather to overlook when he says 
 (Brit. Fos. Mam., p. 500), that in all probability the " herds of newly 
 conquered regions would be derived from the already domesticated cattle 
 of the Eoman colonist." Xo doubt to a certain extent this might after- 
 wards be the case ; but Csesar himself tells ns, in his Commentaries, at 
 the very commencement of his operations in England, that "the country 
 W£is well peopled, and that they possessed ' pecoris magnus numerus'" — 
 (lib. V. 12), numerous herds of cattle; for "pecus"' is frequently used 
 when domesticated cattle are spoken of, although certainly its more 
 correct signification refers to sheep ; and that in this instance it refers to 
 cattle, we think is rendered the more likely by his going on to tell us 
 that the natives of the interior of the country seldom troubled themselves 
 with the tillage of the ground, but lived on milk and llesh meat, and 
 clothed themselves with the skins (lib. v. 12, 14); all of which facts 
 are proofs of the reference being at least to domesticated herds ; and also, 
 as has been well remarked, that the proverbial fondness of the natives 
 of the southern parts of our island, at the present day, for the " roast 
 beef of Old England," is a taste of no recent origin. It should also be 
 remembered, that it must have taken no little time before the country 
 could be filled with " numerous herds of cattle," especially if we consider 
 the difficulty of transit from one country to another in the still earlier 
 and ruder times ; and I may remind you of the fact, of which Cffisar also 
 informs us, that the Germans were, like the British, in possession of 
 numerous herds of cattle before the Eomans invaded them, not bein<» 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 597 
 
 tillers of the ground, but resembling the British in their " milk, cheese, 
 and flesh" diet, derived of course from their domesticated cattle. Con- 
 siderations such as these would make me rather agree with Professor 
 Owen's other remarks, when, treating of the Bos loiiyifrons, he says, "that 
 if it still be contended that the natives of Britain, or any part of them, 
 obtained their cattle by taming a primitive breed, this small-sized, original 
 variety of ox is most likely to have furnished the source." Now, I am 
 inclined to think that the several instances where bones of this animal 
 have been found along with the ancient works of man, as mentioned by 
 Professor Owen, as well as in the present case, are, in all probability, 
 proofs of the early domesticated state of an ox identical with the Bos 
 longifrons, which, as already mentioned, had existed in this country from 
 the times of the newer pliocene period. 
 
 In support of the opinion of the Bos longifrons being the true origin 
 of our domesticated cattle, or at least as showing its more general resem- 
 blance to them, I may extract one or two statements from the paper of 
 Professor Nilsson already referred to ; for example, when describing the 
 Bos fi-ontosus, he says, " It seems to have been about the size of our 
 common cow, from which, however, in form it totally differs." And in 
 the Bos longifrons, as already noticed, " the form of the temporal cavity 
 is behind transverse-obtuse, before oblique-pointed ; its hinder part (to 
 the angle above the joint of the under jaws) only one-fourth broader than 
 the fore part. Herein it resembles the tame ox, but differs visibly from 
 the B. frontosics, in which the back part is twice as broad as the fore part, 
 and also from the Urns." And he also states that in the Urus the nasal 
 bones are five times as long as broad ; in the-B. longifrons they are nearly 
 six ; while in the domestic ox they are six and a half times as long as 
 broad. 
 
 It is curious to notice the fact, that the wilder districts of Britain, as 
 the extremity of Devon and Cornwall for example, and the mountainous 
 districts of "Wales, as weU as our own rugged land, seem aU, according to 
 Mr Youatt, to have been originally stocked with cattle having even yet 
 as it were a general family likeness, with moderate sized horns, and of no 
 great general bulk ; being the very localities, as Professor Owen well 
 remarks, where the natives would drive their domestic cattle before the 
 advance of an invader, and where of course traces of the original breeds 
 
598 I'KOCEEDIKGS OF THK SOCIETY, JuXE 10, 1872. 
 
 are most likely to be found. Full allowance must, however, at the same 
 time, he made for the wonderful changes produced on cattle hy variety of 
 situation and cUmate, by pastures, and attention on the part of their 
 possessors to their breeding, so as to favour, from what originally might 
 be an accidental peculiarity, the preservation and gradual spreading over 
 the herd of some fancied excellence, or beauty, or fashion of the time. 
 The Galloway cattle may perhaps be cited as an instance of the changes 
 produced in this way ; they are now known as a breed of polled or horn- 
 less cattle; whereas it is said that so late as the middle of the last 
 century, the greater part of them had horns of a rather small or medium 
 size. 
 
 The Ancient White Cattle. — The ancient "White Cattle, stdl exist- 
 ing in some gentlemen's parks, may also, it seems to me, be considered as 
 simplj' an instance of a beautiful and much-esteemed variety of our 
 domesticated cattle being artificially preserved ; but as these are believed 
 by many to be the last remains of our native vnld cattle, I may perhaps 
 be excused entering a little into detail on this curious subject. 
 
 [Various places in England, where herds of these white cattle were pre- 
 served, are enumerated in the " General History of Quadrupeds" of 
 Thomas Bewick, Xewcastle-upon-Tyne. I quote from the editions of 1790 
 and 1824. It is there slated that — 
 
 '■ There was formerly a very singular species of wild cattle in this country, 
 which is now nearly extinct. Numerous herds of them were kept in several 
 parks in England and Scotland ; but they have been destroyed by various means ; 
 and the only breeds now remaining in the kingdom are in the park at ChiUing- 
 ham Castle, in Northumberland ; at WoUaton, in Nottinghamshire, the seat of 
 Lord Middleton ; at Grisbume, in Craven, Yorkshire ; at Limehall, in Cheshire ; 
 and at Chartley, in Staffordshire. 
 
 " The principal external appearances which distinguish this breed of cattle 
 from all others are the following : — Their colour is invariably white ; muzzles 
 black ; the whole of the inside of the ear. and about one-third of the outside, 
 from the tip downwards, red ; horns white, with black tips, very fine, and bent 
 upwards : some of the huUs have a thin upright mane, about an inch and a half 
 or two inches long 
 
 " At the first appearance of any person, they set off at fuU gallop, and at the 
 distance of two or three hundred yards make a wheel round, and come boldly up 
 again, tossing their heads in a menacing manner ; on a sudden they make a full 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 599 
 
 stop at the distance of forty or fifty yards, looking wildly at the object of their 
 surprise ; but upon the least motion being made, they all again turn round, and 
 fly ofl' with equal speed, but not to the same distance, forming a shorter circle, and 
 again returning with a bolder and more threatening aspect than before ; they ap- 
 proach mvtch nearer, probably within thirty yards, when they mate another stand 
 and again fly off'. This they do several times, shortening their distance and ad- 
 vancing nearer, till they come within ten yards, when most people think it prudent 
 to leave them, not choosing to provoke them further. 
 
 " The weight of the oxen is generally from forty to fifty stones the four quarters ; 
 of the cows about thirty. The beef is finely marbled, and of excellent flavour. 
 
 " About twenty years since, there were a few at Chillingham with black ears, 
 but the present park-keeper destroyed them ; since which period there has not 
 been one with black ears. The ears and noses of all those at Wollaton are black. 
 At Gisburne there are some perfectly white, except the inside of their ears, 
 which are brown. They are without horns, very strong boned, but not high. 
 They are said to have been originally brought from Whalley Abbey, in Lan- 
 cashire, upon its dissolution in the thirty- third of Henry the Eighth. Tradition 
 says they were drawn to Gisburne by the power of music. 
 
 " Those at Burton-Constable, in the county of York, were all destroyed by a 
 distemper a few years since. They varied slightly from those at Chillingham, 
 having black ears and muzzles, and the tips of their tails of the same colour ; 
 they were also much larger, many of them weighing sixty stones, probably 
 owing to the richness of the pasturage in Holderuess, but generally attributed 
 to the difference of kind between those with black and with red ears, the former 
 of which they studiously endeavour to preserve. The breed which was at Drum- 
 lanrig, in Scotland, had also black ears. . 
 
 " Tame cows, in season, are frequently turned out amongst the wild cattle at 
 Chillingham, and admit the bull. It is somewhat extraordinary that the calves 
 produced by this mode are invariably of the same colour with the wild breed 
 (white with red ears), and retain a good deal of the fierceness of their sire." 
 
 Mr Thomas Bell, in his " History of British Quadrupeds," London, 
 18.37, quotes from Mr Cullen "On Live Stock," the description of the 
 appearance and habits of these white cattle iu presence of strangers, 
 which I have already given from Bewick's " Quadrupeds," apparently as 
 a proof of the wild nature of these animals. I have, however, again and 
 again seen all these wild habits exhibited by our Highland kyloes, 
 when a boy fishing up a stream on the borders of Eoxburghshire, which 
 ran past a low grassy hill and through the remains of an old decaying 
 
 VOL. IX. TART IT. 2 Q 
 
600 PUOCEEDIXGS OF THE SOCIETY, JOKE 10, 1S72 
 
 wood principally of birches, part, indeed, of the skirts of the old Etterick 
 forest. Here the kvlees remained for many months together, sometimes 
 followed bj- their calves, seeing nobody- but an occasional shepherd, and 
 got almost Kke wild animals, acting exactly like these Chillingham cattle 
 when they caught sight of us, and we were glad to beat a speedy retreat 
 before they came close enough to make their final rush ; which, indeed, 
 they had done some time before, knocking down a man and endangering 
 his life, had not his cries speedUy brought the much-needed help, which 
 happened most providentially to be at no very great distance. 
 
 Sir Philip Grey Egerton, F.E.S., &c., published, in the "Annals and 
 Magazine of Natural History," vol. iii. p. 241, London, 1839, a note 
 showing the former existence of these white cattle at Bishop's Auckland, 
 in the county of Durham, copied from a manuscript in his own possession, 
 entitled " The Second Yeares Travell throw Scottland and Ireland, 
 1635." The writer passes a few days, on his road to Scotland, " att 
 Bishoppe Auckland wth Dr Moreton, Bishoppe of Durham." After de- 
 scribing the palace, " chappies," &c., he mentions " A daintie stately 
 parke : where-in I saw ^vild bulls and kine : y/"^ had 2 calves ruiiers ; 
 there are about 20 wild beasts all white : will nott endure yo' approach ; 
 butt if they bee enraged or distressed, verye violent and furious : their 
 calves will bee wonderous fatt." 
 
 In Scotland in ancient times these white cattle, according to Boece, 
 were found throughout the Great Caledonian Forest, which formerly 
 covered the country from Callander to Athol and Lochaber; but Boece (to 
 whom I shall afterwards more particularly refer), writing in 1526, says that 
 in his time they were only to be found in the district of Cumbernauld. 
 In writing his account of these cattle, Boece probably had in his mind 
 Csesar's description^ of the great long-horned wild and nntameable TJri 
 (already referred to), which is not to be wondered at, when we remember 
 they were the only wild cattle known in his day, no fossil remains of the 
 large Bos prhnigenhis having then been noticed. Bishop Leslie in 1578 
 states that the white cattle were then to be found in three places, of 
 the same great district however, Stirling, Cumbernauld adjoining it 
 on the south, and " Kincamia," probably Kincardine on the Forth . 
 
 1 See quotation from " De Bello Gallico," p. 650. 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OE SCOTLAND. 601 ■■ 
 
 Bewick, whom I Lave already quoted, states that they formerly existed 
 at Drumlanrig, in Damfriesshire, and Pennant in his " British Zoology," 
 vol. i. p. 18 of 4th edition, 1786, mentions " having seen in the woods of 
 Drumlanrig in North Britain, and in the park helonging to Chillingham 
 Castle in Northumberland, herds of cattle, probably derived from the 
 savage breed " — white cattle, with black muzzles and ears ; their horns 
 fine, and with a bold and elegant bend. The keeper at GhiUingham 
 informed him that the weight of the ox was 38 stones and the cow 
 28. 
 
 Mr Hiadmarsh, in his paper on " The Wild Cattle of Chillingham,"^ 
 gives the following note about the Drumlanrig Cattle, which he had re- 
 ceived in 1839 from the clergyman of the place: — "In what year the 
 wild cattle came to Drumlanrig I have not been able to ascertain. The 
 breed are described as being all white, with the exception of the ears and 
 muzzle (which are black), and without manes. They went under the 
 name of the wild Caledonian Cattle.'' "They were driven away about 
 1780." The date must have been a little later, as I have already quoted 
 from Pennant his having seen them about this time. 
 
 The only locality in which they are now to be found in Scotland is 
 Cadzow Forest, part of the great park of Hamilton Palace. In the " Sta- 
 tistical Account of Scotland," of Sir John Sinclair, Bart., Edinburgh, 
 vol. ii. 1792, the account of the parish of Hamilton is given by Mr John 
 Naismith. After describing the old oaks still remaining in the Duke of 
 Hamilton's park, some of them measuring 20 feet round— the last remains of 
 ancient forests — he says : — " Among these venerable trees grazed the wild 
 cows mentioned by naturalists as au untamed native breed. They seemed 
 to differ in nothing from the domestic kind, excepting that they were all 
 over white with black or brown ears and muzzles ; and, from their manner 
 of life very shy, and even fierce, when they had not room to fly. They were 
 exterminated, from economical motives, about the year 1760," p. 208. In 
 the account of the parish of Hamilton, by the Eev. Wm. Patrick, in 1835, 
 publishedin the " New Statistical Account of Scotland," we read that Cadzow 
 
 1 An account of the Chillingham cattle, as descended from the wild cattle of the 
 ountry is also given in "A Catalogue of the Mammalia of Northumberland and 
 Durham'," hy H. T. Meunell and Y. E. Perkins. Tram. Tyneside Nat. Field Club, 
 N-ewcastle-upon-Tyne, 1864, vol. vi. 
 
.602 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JUNE 10, 1872. 
 
 wood " is browsed by about four score white cows of tbe ancient British 
 breed. Their bodies are milk-white; their ears, muzzles, and hoofs black; 
 and the skin in front, above the hoof, is mottled with black. They are 
 perfectly docile, except when they have calves." My attention has been 
 lately called to a communication to the Eoyal Society of Ediuburgh, by 
 Dr Eobert Knox, in April 1838, " On the Wild Ox of Scotland," of 
 which a very short abstract is published in the " Proceediugs of the 
 Eoyal Society," vol. i. 1845. In it Dr Knox, after endeavouring to 
 trace the antiquity of the white oxen during the historic period of 
 Britain, for which, however, he thinks materials are altogether wanting, 
 examined the question as to whether the white cattle of Britain constitute 
 a distinct species of the Bovine tribe, and thinks they do not; but as the 
 domestic ox is now a mixed breed derived from several species, he is at a 
 loss to show to which of these the white ox of Hamilton most approaches ; 
 they seem to bear the strongest resemblance, he thinks, to the GaUoway 
 breed. Dr Knox states that "many of the bulls have horns, whilst 
 others are polled," and he " suggests, in conclusion, that the type of 
 these cattle can never be satisfactorily made out so long as their 
 breeding is so much interfered with by the destniction of all the 
 calves, which may differ in form or colour from the standard considered 
 by the noble proprietors as essential to the purity of the breed," 
 p. 202.1 
 
 A fine specimen of a white bull from Hamilton (with black ears and 
 muzzle, horns white, tipped with black, and some very slight black 
 mottling above the hoofs of the fore feet and on the lower parts of the 
 body), is in the Museum of Science and Art. In the report of the Pro- 
 ceedings of the Wernerian Society of March 5, 1842, it is stated that 
 "a splendid specimen of the white bull from the park of Hamilton 
 Palace, presented to the Museum by the Duke of Hamilton, was ex- 
 hibited." (Edin. Phil. Jour. vol. xxxii. p. 400, 1842). Mr John 
 Gibson, of the Museum of Science and Art, has furnished me with the 
 following measurements of this fine stuffed specimen of the white ox, 
 which enables us to judge pretty nearly of the size of these so-called wild 
 cattle : — 
 
 ' See subseiivient Note of Dr Knox's specimen of this ox, p. 614. 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 
 
 G03 
 
 Lenytli of bead from muzzle to line Ijefwccn the liorns 
 
 or top of the head, 1 
 
 Length from this lino to the root of the tail, . 7 
 Total length of body, ... 8 
 
 Length of horns, . .1 
 
 Length between tij)s of lionis, , .5 
 
 Height to top of shonlder, 4 
 
 From the politeness of a correspondent at Hamilton I learn these cattle 
 are now a considerable herd, but they are all without liorns or polled, 
 and have been so for some time past. By the Idjerality of the Duke of 
 Hamilton, several are slaughtered every 
 year, in order to afford a New Year's 
 ] )ay dinner to the poor of the town, all 
 the clergyman sending in a list of the 
 poor of their congregations for the 
 purpose. 
 
 In " Tilack's Picturesrjue Tourist of 
 Scotland," Edinburgh, the annexed 
 figure (for the use of which I am in- 
 debted to our well-known publishers 
 Messrs A. & C. Black) is given i7i 
 
 illustration of the remarks on the white cattle of Hamilton. It is there 
 stated that at Cadzow "the famous breed of Scottish wild cattle are still 
 preserved." " They were expelled on account of their ferocity about 1700, 
 but have since been restored." (Edit. 1849).' 
 
 We find then, among these various herds of park-kejit, so-called Wild 
 White Cattle, at present or lately in existence in the country, a con- 
 siderable diversity in their general appearance; some with red ears, others 
 with black, and this latter peculiarity occurring occasionally even among 
 those of the red-eared variety, as mentioned by Bewick of the Chilling- 
 ham cattle ; and some having horns, while others have none, as tlie 
 breed of wild white cattle at Gisburne, in Craven, Yorkshire, &c. (vide 
 Bewick's Quadrupeds) ; and, besides other little peculiarities, we have also 
 the occurrence from time to time among these breeds of cattle more or 
 
 ^ I have added from my note; 
 Cattle." 
 
 these additional details of the "ancient ^Vhite 
 
604 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JUNE 10, 1872. 
 
 less maiked with brown or black spots, but these individuals are always 
 killed, to prevent this variety spreading among the herd. " And when 
 the calves have been taken young, they have been completely tamed, and 
 become like the common domestic ox, feeding as rapidly in confinement 
 as a short-homed steer." — (Vide Paper "On the "WUd White Cattle of 
 Chillingham," by WiUiam Hiudmarsh, Esq., in the Annals of Nut. Hist. 
 for 1839, vol. ii) 
 
 All these peculiarities seem to me to favour the idea of these cattle 
 being merely an ancient fancy breed of domesticated cattle, preserved for 
 their beauty in the parks of the nobUity. 
 
 It is well known that the colour of many animals is changed by domes- 
 tication, and that they frequently become more or less entirely white; 
 and it is interesting, as showing apparently where some of the last traces 
 of the original colour of an animal, which has been changed in this way, 
 may be expected stUl to remain, to notice the remark of Professor BeU 
 of London, in his valuable work on " British Quadrupeds," that " it 
 appears the ears are more liable to retain colour in animals which become 
 white by domestication than any other parts. This is the case, as we 
 have seen, with the guinea pig, and it is no less true of the ox, and some 
 others." — (P. 355.) I have heard a similar remark made by Professor 
 Fleming, that he had never seen an entirely white ox, but that the ears 
 always remained of a different colour. Kow, in these park-kept white 
 cattle, we have this same peculiarity also existing; and Professor XUsson 
 alludes in his paper to the well-known fact, that no race of wild oxen 
 of this white colour is known to naturalists. 
 
 In Mr Hindmarsh's paper, already referred to, he quotes passages from 
 several ancient authors, to justify the hypothesis of their being the re- 
 mains of the ancient wild cattle of the country. These authors are. Hector 
 Boece or Boethius, " Scotorum Historiae a Prima Gentis Origine," pub- 
 lished at Paris in 1526; and Bishop John Leslie, "De Origine, Moribus, 
 et Eebus Gestis Scotorum," published at Eome in 1578. Now these, 
 I suspect, must be considered, not as two independent authorities, but 
 merely as one; for the Bishop, in his book, published some fifty- two 
 years after the other, gives manifestly, in this instance, almost a verbatim 
 copy of the statements of Boethius. To show this, I may compare the 
 original passages, which refer to the existence of these white cattle in the 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 605 
 
 Great Caledonian Forest, tvhicL formerly covered the country from Stir- 
 ling to Athol. 
 
 (1.) BoETHius, " Scotorum Historise a Prima Gentis Origine," fol. 6, 1. 
 63; Scotorum Eegni Descriptio, &c., of edit. Paris 157-1: — "Hie initia 
 olim fuere Caledonise sylva^ manentibus videlicet veteribus adbuc nomi- 
 nibus Callendar et Gaidar, excurreus per Monteth. et Ernevallem longo 
 tractu ad Atholiam et Loqubabriani usque. Gignere solet ea sylva boves 
 caudissimos in formam leonis jubam ferentes, castera mansuetis simillimos, 
 verum adeo feros indomitosque atque humanum refugientes consortium, 
 ut quas berbas, arboresque aut frutices humana contrectatas manu sen- 
 serint plurimos deinceps dies fugiant: capti autem arte quapiam (quod 
 difficilimum est) mox panlo prfe msestitia moriantur." — '• Hujus autem 
 animalis carnes esui jucundissimse sunt, atque in primis nobilitati gratse, 
 verum cartilaginoste. Ceeterum quum tota olim silva nasci ea solerent : 
 in una tantum nanc ejus parte reperiuntur, quse Cummirnald appellatur, 
 aliis gula bumana ad internecionem redactis." 
 
 (2.) Bishop Leslie, "De Origine, Moribus, etEebus Gestis Scotorum" 
 Eome, 1578, p. 19, (Scotia Descriptio) : — "Ab Lis regionibus vastissima 
 ilia olim Caledonia sylva initium sumpsit, ut qusedam locorum nomina 
 liodie indicant." — " In Caledonia olim frequens erat sylvestris quidem 
 bos, nunc vero rarior, qui colore candissimo, jubam densam, ac demissam 
 instar leonis gestat, truculentus, ac ferus ab humano genere abhorrens, 
 ut qusecunque bomines vel manibus contrectarint, vel balitu perflaverint, 
 ab iis multos post dies omnino abstinuerint." — " Ejus carnes cai'tilagi- 
 nosse, sed saporis suavissimi. Erat is olim per illam vastissimam Cale- 
 donias sylvam frequens, sed humana ingluvie jam assumptus, tribus tan- 
 tum locis est reliquus, Stirivilingi, Cumernaldise, et Kincarnise." 
 
 As for Boethius himself, we must remember, that though perhaps a 
 good enough authority as to anything that happened under his own obser- 
 vation, he is so credulous as to believe apparently all that was told him, 
 however extraordinary; so that his description of these cattle, of the 
 purest white, maned like lions, untameably wild, and fleeing the very 
 neighbourhood, or even the scent of men, and which apparently he had 
 never seen, must all be taken with a considerable allowance. In all proba- 
 bility they were nothing more than strayed domestic cattle, which, in the 
 course of years, had lapsed into a semi-wild state. As an instance of his 
 
606 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JUNE 10, 1872. 
 
 credulity, I may refer, in tte words of Bellenden's Translation of 1553, 
 to his account of the extraordinary animal descrihed by Sir Duncan 
 Camphell, — '• That out of GarloU, ane loch of Argyle, the yeir of God 
 M.DX yeiris, came ane terrible beast, als meikil as ane grew hound, futit 
 like ane ganar, and straik down greit trees with the diat of her tail, and 
 slew thre men quhilks wer at their hountis with thre straikis of her tail ; 
 and wer not the remanent hunteris clam up in Strang aikis, they had 
 been aU slane in the samiu maner." — (Chap, vii., Bellenden's Trans, of 
 Boetkius' History.) 
 
 It is curious, however, to trace the description of these white cattle, 
 maned like Hens, &c., published by Boece in 1526 ; as it seems to have 
 been adopted by naturalists on his authorit}', and to have apparently 
 been the only source from which they derived their descriptions. 
 
 In the " Descriptio Britannise, Scotise, Hibemise, et Orcadum " of 
 Paulus Jovius, published at Venice in 1548, we have the following 
 
 " Cffiterum Caledonia sylva antiquis nota scriptoribus, quae hodie 
 Callendar appeUatur, vasta sui magnitudine e mediterraneis ad maritima 
 variis anfractibus se extendit. In ea inusitati generis feras, et volucres 
 esse tradunt, equos silicet agrestes et indomitos ; atque item tauros 
 summse feritatis leonum similitudine jubatos, Bisontibus quos Sarmatia 
 gignit, populusque Eomanus aliquando in arena spectavit, -torvitate 
 aspectus non omnino dissimUes. li vestigia hominum insidiarum metu 
 astutis sensibus devitant, attrectatasque forte hominis manu frondes 
 quum olfecerint, repente profugiunt, nee, capti labyrinthis et foveis nUa 
 omnino pabuli copia plaeantur. Servitutis enim contumeliani non diu 
 ferunt, in eaque msestitia, contumaci spiritu efflato, citissim^ moriuntur; 
 tanta autem iracundia et robore venatores invadunt, ut eos nonnunquani 
 transfossos cornibus, vibratosque in sublime, crudeliter interimant." — 
 (P. 32, a., Yenet., 1548.)^ 
 
 This author simply repeats again the account given by Boethius of 
 these wild cattle, iintameable and of extreme ferocity, maned Kke lions. 
 He adds, however, the statement, probably from his own knowledge of 
 the European Bison, — that to the Bisons which Sarmatia produces, and 
 
 1 The quotation from Pauliis Jovius was only obtained after this paper ^\-as first 
 published.— J. A. S. 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 607 
 
 the Eoman people liave sometimes seen in the arena, — in the savageness of 
 their aspect they are not altogether unlike ; and following the passage I 
 have quoted ahove, he goes on to detaO the story of the narrow escape made 
 by King Eobert Bruce from being destroyed by one of these animals, by 
 the bravery of one of his followers, exactly as the circumstance is de- 
 tailed by Boethias ; but as I have omitted this account in my quotation 
 from Boethius, I need not quote it from Paulas Jovius. 
 
 This, however, appears to be the first time these cattle were compared 
 to the Bison of Central Europe, and in the next author I shall quote, we 
 find a step taken in advance, and Paulus Jovius's comparison of the wild 
 cattle of Scotland to the Bison is now expanded into a description of 
 these wild cattle as the Bison album Scotkum. 
 
 Aldrovandus, then, ia his work, " Quadrupedum Omnium Bisul- 
 corum," Bonon, 1632, referring to the older work of Gesner, "Historia 
 Animalium," 1551, notices these white cattle, in all probability from 
 their being described as having manes like lions, and not altogether un- 
 lilie the Sarmatian Bison, under the name of Bison dlhum Scoticum, sive 
 Calydonicum, using the very description of Boece already so often quoted. 
 
 Then, again, in the " Historia N'aturalis de Quadrupedibus " of John 
 Jonston, M.D., published at Amsterdam, 1657, we have this same de- 
 scription of Boece again in part repeated ; in two different places, how- 
 ever, — first, ia the chapter " De Bove Domestico," and again, " De 
 Bobus Feris," ^vith a marginal reference to " Aldrovand. Histor. Bisul." 
 To show this more fully I may quote the passages. Art. 1, Db Bove 
 Domestico, Diffei-entiw, p. 34: — " In Scotia boves sunt sylvestres colore 
 candidissimo, juba densa ac demissa, truculenti et feri, adeoque ah huma- 
 no genere abhorrentes, ut ab iis quse homines vel manibus contrectarint, 
 vel halitu perflaverint, per multos dies abstineant, dolo capti, moriantur. 
 Games cartilaginosae habent." And again. Art. 2, De Bobus Feeis, p. 1. 
 De Bisonte: — "Hue pertinet et Bison Scoticus. Candidissimum esse 
 aiunt, in formam leonis jubam ferre, csetera mansuetis simillimum, verum 
 adeo ferum et indomitum, humanique consortii hostem, ut quas herbas 
 aut frutices humana contrectatas manu senserit, plurimos deinceps fugiat: 
 captum autem arte quadam, mox prsee msestitia mori." So that we have 
 now two species, apparently, made in this way out of Boece's description. 
 
 Accordinglv, in the " Scotia Illustbata, sive Prodronms Historice 
 
608 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JUNE 10, 1872. 
 
 A\ituralis," of Eobert Sibbald, M.D., publislied at Edinburgh, in 1684, we 
 find this Scottish naturalist quoting from Jonston's work, referred to above, 
 adding, however, the following remarks : — " Quae quidem ab Historicis 
 nostris petita sunt, sed confirmatione agent. In pluribus locis montana 
 partis Scotise reperiuntur quidem Boves feri, albi quoque : sed non ita 
 truculenti, neque forma a domesticis diiferuiit. An jubati Bisontes nunc 
 extent, nescio." — De Bisttlcis Ruminantibus Cornigefis, p. 7. So that 
 Sibbald seems to doubt the existence of the so-called Bison Scoticus, 
 though he admits that white cattle, exactly however resembling the 
 domesticated breeds, and by no means so fierce and savage as they are 
 described, still run wild in some of the mountainous districts of the 
 country. The original source of the whole statement is apparently the 
 description given by Boece, and repeated by Paulns Jovius, Bishop 
 Leslie, and others, which I have already taken the liberty of criticising, 
 as being, in all probability, a very exaggerated account. 
 
 Moreover, if we search stiU further back in the records of a much 
 greater antiquity, we find evidently the same kind of white cattle de- 
 scribed in such a way as seems to me to imply, without a doubt, their 
 thorough domestication. In the " Leges T\^allicse," of " Howell Dda," 
 the Welsh laws of King Howell the Good, which date from about a.d. 
 942-3, or before the middle of the tenth century, — vide Translation by 
 Gul'. AVottonus, London, 1730, — we find white cattle with red ears, in 
 all probability the same breed of cattle as those I have been referring 
 to, ordered to be paid as a compensation for offences committed against 
 the Princes of Wales — (vide Lib. 1, chap, vi., pp. 10-11): — 
 
 " De solvenda Multa Regis. — Multa pro injuria Eegi Aberfravise illata 
 hoc modo solvenda. Centum vaccas pro qualibet centuria subditione 
 ejus Eeus sol vet, et cum singulis centenis vaccis unum Taurum auribus 
 rufis prseditum cum Yirga aurea ejusdem cum Eege longitudinis, magni- 
 tudine digiti ejus minimi, et crassitudine unguis aratoris qui per novem 
 annos araverit. Aurum nemini debitur nisi Eegi Aberfravia?." — " 3. 
 Domini Dinevorse privUegium est accipere pro compensatione injuriee sibi 
 illatffi vaccas albas aures rufas habentes, totidem quot ordine sibi suc- 
 cedentes pertingent ab Argoeha (<?) ad Dinevoram, et cum singulis vicenis 
 vaccis taurum ejusdem coloris. Aurum nemini penditur nisi Eegi Dine- 
 vorae vel Eegi Aberfravise." 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIE^'T CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 609 
 
 " (e) Loci nomen prope Dinevoram, sibi ubi prsecise situs sit ignoratur." 
 It seems very evident tliat sucli numbeis of living wUd cattle could 
 never be exacted as payment of a fine, but that beyond all doubt 
 domesticated cattle are here referred to, and apparently, from tbe special 
 character of tbe notice, a favourite variety, highly prized for their beauty 
 and peculiar colour. To show how highly this breed of cattle had been 
 valued at a very early period, I may quote several passages from Mr 
 Youatt's well-known work " On Cattle." He says (p. 478), " Howel dha, 
 or Howell the Good, describes some of the "Welsh cattle, in the tenth 
 century, as being ' white, with red ears,' resembling the wild cattle of 
 ChLUingham Castle. An early record speaks of a hundred white cows with 
 red ears being demanded as a compensation for certain offences against 
 the Princes both of l^orth and South Wales. If the cattle were of a dark 
 or black colour, one hundred and fifty were to be presented. "When the 
 Cambrian Princes did homage to the King of England, the same number 
 of cattle, and of the same description, were rendered in acknowledgment 
 of sovereignty. Speed tells us that Maud de Breos, in order to appease 
 King John, whom her husband had offended, sent to his Queen a present 
 from Brecknockshire of four hundred cows and a bull, aU white, and with 
 red ears. Whether this was the usual colour of the ancient breed of 
 "Welsh and British cattle, or a rare variety, esteemed on account of its 
 beauty, and chiefly preserved in the parks of the nobles, we are unable to 
 determine. The latter is the more probable supposition ; and the same 
 records that describe the ' white cattle with red ears,' speak also of the 
 ' dark or black-coloured breed,' which now exists, and which is general 
 throughout the principalitj-." 
 
 It appears to me only natural to suppose that these were aU domesticated 
 and surely not wild cattle, to which reference has been made in these 
 various passages ; and that they were a highly-prized variety is shown by 
 their colour being specially mentioned, as well as their beijig valued at a 
 half more than the dark-coloured, which were most probably the more com- 
 mon breed of the district. And let me call to your recoUection a remark 
 of Hector Boece himself, in the passage already quoted, — that, with the 
 exception of their colour and manes, the wild white cattle are exceedingly 
 like the ordinary tame or domesticated breed ; and that their flesh is very 
 pleasant food, and much approved of by the nobility ; — both of which 
 
610 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JDNE 10, 1872. 
 
 otservations, in my opiniou, tend to show the truth of the views now 
 stated. 
 
 Youatt says, the old legends of "Wales speak of the ancient domesti- 
 cated cattle heing of a dark or reddish colour, resembling considerahly 
 the Devon cattle ; and according to the same authority, " the slightest 
 observation will convince us that the cattle in Devonshire, Sussex, 
 Wales, and Scotland, are all essentially the same." He considers that 
 red had been their primitive colour, as he traces it through aU these 
 varieties, and declares that even where another colour, as black, now 
 prevails, the memory of the red still remains, and has a superstitious 
 reverence paid to it in the legends of the people. In Scotland also there 
 lias always existed a popular feeling of preference for the red cow, it being 
 declared to be " luckier," and to give more milk. It is, perhaps, worthy 
 of notice, in relation to the question of colour, that the Urus or B. pi-imi- 
 genius is believed to have been of a dark or black colour ; and in what I 
 consider to be a very rare specimen of a portion of the skull of the Bos 
 longifrons, with the horns and part of the skin and hair stUl attached, 
 which was kindly shown me by Professor Fleming, the colour of the hair, 
 as far as you can judge from a specimen found in an Irish bog, is also of 
 a black or dark reddish or brownish tint ; it may be, bearing a relation 
 to the very colour to which I have been alluding. 
 
 I may remark that the smaU size of the domesticated cattle in this 
 country, from the very earliest times, seems to me an additional and 
 unanswerable objection to their having descended from the gigantic Ui-us. 
 Professor NUsson, however, in his paper already referred to, considers 
 " that we may take it as a given and general rule, that the tame race is 
 always less than the wild species from which it springs." Now, this is a 
 proposition which I am very much inclined to doubt, believing, as I do, 
 that animals are by no means necessarily degenerated and dwarfed in their 
 dimensions, as the Professor supposes, when taken under the care and 
 protection of man, but, on the contrary, are rather increased in size, by 
 careful tending and feeding, as well as by attention to their breeding ; 
 and examples in proof of this view, I am inclined to think, may be found 
 in our domesticated dogs, horses, &c. We know, from such specimens 
 as these skulls I have described, the small size of at least some species of 
 cattle in the Eoman period ; and others, of an exactly corresponding kind 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 611 
 
 and size, have been found, as already mentioned, belonging to an 
 immensely older geologic period, carrying us back in this way to times 
 altogether prior to the existence of man. Then, in much later times, as 
 shown in the "Welsh Laws of Howell the Good, in the tenth century 
 (vide Wotton's Trans. Leges "Wallicae), we have apparenly given to us 
 the different sizes of the yokes used for ploughing ; and if so, from these 
 we find that the cattle of that date must have been much smaller than 
 those of the present day. Thus we find it stated in Lib. III., chap, ix., 
 p. 279, De Societate Aratiunis : — "Jugum breve quattuorpedibus (longum); 
 Jugum maiale octonispedibus; Jugum axillare duodenis pedibus; Jugum 
 longum senis denis pedibus." In other passages of these laws, we have 
 these various yokes referred to as measures of the land, being apparently 
 taken from the well-known sizes of the different yokes themselves. The 
 cattle, Mr Youatt says, were always yoked abreast, and the short yoke 
 for two oxen was only four Welsh feet of nine inches each, or three 
 feet English in length, increasing in the same proportion for four oxen ; 
 and for eight, which was sixteen Welsh feet, or twelve feet English long. 
 Chap, ix., 2 of Lib. III. of Leges Wallicse :— ■'Uncia longitudine trium 
 granorum hordeacorum constat — Palmatribus unciis — Pes tribus palmis ; " 
 showing in this way of what these measures consist. Mr Youatt declares 
 that an ox of the present day would require a somewhat larger space than 
 eighteen inches in order to work or even to stand. {Vide Youatt " On 
 Cattle.") And when we remember the small size of our domesticated 
 cattle in ancient times, it is interesting to notice another remark in 
 page 3 of his valuable work, in regard to the comparative size of the 
 well-tended cattle of the present day : — " There is no doubt that within 
 the last century their size has progressively increased in England, and 
 kept pace with the improvement of agriculture." How far this may go 
 on seems rather a difficult matter to determine, as well as to what extent 
 a species of animal like the ox may be changed from its original type, 
 degenerating, it may be, in some places, and improving in others, by 
 being long under the dominion and management of experimenting and 
 calculating man. 
 
 These rough notes I consider as tending to show the extreme impro- 
 bability of our domestic cattle being the descendants of the large-sized 
 Bos primigenius ; and shall I say, the probability of their true progenitor 
 
612 PEOCEEDIXCtS of the society, JCN"E 10, 1S72. 
 
 heing this small and equallj'-ancient Bos longifrons, or short-horned ox, 
 "n-liich has been proved to have existed in this country from the later 
 geologic periods down at le,ist to the bustling times of" busy man. 
 
 In conclusion, I have to return to my catalogue of animal remains, and, 
 making a rapid descent in the scale of animal life, allude to an ancient 
 mollusc, which had been prized then as now as a delicacy for the table, 
 and is the last of these relics I have to notice, which were found with 
 the traces of the Eoman occupation of this district ; I refer to the Com- 
 mon Ovster, Odrea ediilis} of which this shell, measuring 41 inches in 
 greatest diameter (which I exhibit), and several others were found ; 
 aifording a proof of the large size of this ancient shell-fish, as well as of 
 the fondness of the Eoman epicure, even at this inland station, for the 
 celebrated oysters of our British seas. 
 
 ^ ily best thanks are due to my friend Adam Smith, Esc[., Damiok (now of 
 Melbourne, Australia!; and to ilr Francis Burnet, >;cwstead (since deceased), for 
 their zeal in jirocuring for me these various specimens. 
 
 SiJe-Vie'.v of Skull of ' ' AVhite Ox " from Hamilton, formerly in Dr Knox's Collection. 
 (See pp. 602 and 61i.) 
 
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 PKOCEEHIXCtS of the society, .tune 10, 1872. 
 
 XOTE OF THE WiLD WhITE Oj 
 
 :iF Capzow. Hamilton. 
 
 In the very sliort abstract of Dr Robert Knox's paper already referreil 
 to '■ On the Wild Ox of Scotland.' pnblisbed in tbe " Proceedings of tbe 
 Pioyal Society of Scotland," vol. i., lS4.i. p. 201, he says: — " The cranium 
 of the vrikl ox of Hamilton differs very much from those of most domestic 
 
 Skull ot "White Ox from Hnmiltnii, fonuerly iu Pr Knox's Collection. 
 \9 inches 9 lines iu length. 1 
 
 oxen, particular!)- in the breatlth of the foreheail, shortness of the nas;d 
 bones, and configuration of the interior of the nostrils. ^Many of the 
 bulls have horns, whilst others are polled.'' At the siile of Dr Knox's 
 collections, a polled skeleton of tlie Hamilton wild ox was purchased by 
 Professor Goodsir, labelled by him rrn-s SfLiticiis, and added to the Ana- 
 tomical Museum of the University. This is undoubtedly the auiraal to 
 which Dr Knox refers in his paper. Througli the kindness of my friend 
 
9 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 615 
 
 Professor Turner, I have had aa opportunity of examining it, and, witli 
 the assistance of Mr A. B. Stirling, add a few measurements for comparison 
 with the other varieties of cattle described. I am also able to give figures 
 of the skull of this Hamilton ox (pp. 612 and 614), which, so far as I am 
 aware, have not yet been published : — 
 
 Measureinents of Skull of Recent White Ox from Hamilton. 
 
 In. Lin. 
 
 Length of skull fcom supra-occipital ridge to front edge of 
 
 intermaxillary bones, . 19 9 
 
 Length from supra-occipital ridge along centre of forehead 
 
 to nasal bones, . . . . 
 
 Length from nasal suture to front of intermaxillary bones, 
 Length from centre of occipital ridge to upper edge of orbits, 
 Length of orbits, ... 
 
 Breadth of orbits, ..... 
 
 Length from front of orbit to front of maxillary bone. 
 Length from front of orbit to front edge of intermaxillary 
 
 bone, . 1 1 
 
 Length of nasal bones — 
 
 Eight, 
 
 Left, . 
 Breadth of nasal bones, 
 Breadth of forehead at upper part. 
 Breadth across about midway between top and orbits, . 
 Breadth of skull across middle of orbits. 
 Breadth across fiont of intermaxillary bones, 
 Length of alveolar sockets of upper jaw, . 
 Height of skull from supra-occipital ridge to iipper edge of 
 
 foramen magnum, ..... 5 3 
 
 Height of skull from supra-occipital ridge to the base of 
 
 the skull, .... .70 
 
 Breadth of occipital condyles, posteriorly, 4 ,') 
 
 Loiccr jaic, length, . l-i 6 
 
 Depth from condyloid process to base, 7 o 
 
 Depth from temporal process to base, . . 9 
 
 Measurements of Skelefan. 
 
 Atlas, length through foramen, . . -2 6 
 
 Greatest breadth below. . . 7 6 
 
 VOL. IX. PAET II. 2 k 
 
 5 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 9 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 
 
616 
 
 FEOCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETy, JITN^E 10, 1872. 
 
 Axis, length. 
 
 Breadth below, 
 Scapula, length (without cartilage), 
 
 Breadth across base. 
 Humerus, greatest length, 
 
 Breadth across lower articalation, 
 Sadius, length, . 
 
 Breadth of lower articulation, 
 Ulna, length from olecranmn. 
 Carpus, length, . 
 Metacarpus, length, 
 
 Breadth across lower articulation, 
 Phalanx, first, length, 
 
 Second, length, 
 
 Hoof, length. 
 Pelvis, length between tuby. of ilium and 1 
 
 Breadth across tubs, of ilium, 
 
 Breadth across tubs, of ischium, 
 
 Breadth across acetabula, 
 Femur, greatest length, . 
 
 Breadth across lower articulation. 
 Tibia, length. 
 
 Breadth across lower articulation, 
 Calcaneum, length. 
 Tarsus, length. 
 Metatarsus, length. 
 
 Breadth across lower articalation, 
 Phalanx, first, length. 
 
 Second, 
 
 Hoof, 
 
 This ox is therefore rather larger than the nsual size of the ancient 
 Bos longifrons ; but considerable range of size, as well as variety in the 
 direction of the horns, must be apparently allowed even in the latter. 
 The more massive skuU and breadth of forehead is partly due probably 
 to this Hamilton ox being a bull ; and the principal difference is in the 
 shortness of the nasal bones, and the configuration of the interior of the 
 nostrils which is apparently due to the greater projection forwards, and 
 downwards towards the septum of the nose, of a lamina from the lower 
 
 
 In 
 
 Lin. 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 
 16 
 
 6 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 9 
 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 
 11 
 
 6 
 
 
 3 
 
 & 
 
 
 14 
 
 6 
 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 . 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 d tuby. of ischium, 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 
 25 
 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
9 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND, 617 
 
 part of the upper half of naso-turbinal bone. Probably mere individual 
 varieties of size and proportion in a young animal. 
 
 In the Museum of Science and Art there is a skeleton of an ordinary 
 polled ox resembling that of the Hamilton "White Ox, being nearly of 
 the same size. The skuU measures in 
 
 In. Lin. 
 
 Length from centre of occipital crest to anterior part of in- 
 termaxillary bones, .... 19 9 
 
 Do. to nasal suture, . 
 
 Length from nasal suture to front of intermaxillary bones. 
 Nasal bones in length, right. 
 
 Do. left, 
 
 Do. ill breadth, 
 
 Length of orbits. 
 Breadth of orbits. 
 
 Breadth of forehead between orbits. 
 Breadth of intermaxillary bones in front, 
 
 (2.) j^oTicE or Two Additional Crania of the Ancient Shoet-horned 
 Ox (Bos longifrons, Owen), found some time ago near Newstead, 
 Eoxbueghshike; ■with Notb of the Skull of a Eecent Shetland 
 Ox. By John Alexander Smith, M.D.^ 
 
 In a previous communication to the Society (AprU, 1851), I exliibited 
 and described four more or less perfect crania of this ox, the Bos longi- 
 frons, ■which were found during the formation of a cuttiag on the Hawick 
 branch of the North British Eailway, in the vale of Melrose, a little to 
 the east of the village of Newstead. They were discovered in a series of 
 deep well-like shafts, which contained various remains, with Eoman 
 pottery and a few coins. 
 
 Since that time I have been able to procure the two portions of skulls 
 now before the Society, which, I believe, complete the collection of 
 ancient animal remains that have been obtained from this place. The 
 larger of the two skuUs seems to have been an animal of rather greater size 
 than any of those formerly described, measuring, as it does, about 7^ inches 
 
 1 Bead befoi-e the Royal Physical Society, Edinburgh, January 25th, 1854, and pub- 
 lished in the "Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal," vol. Ivii., 1854, p. 162. 
 
618 PKOCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JUXE 10, 1872. 
 
 across the forehead between the roots of the horn-cores; and the horn- 
 cores themselves are also larger, heing 7^ inches in circumference at the 
 base. They are about 5 J inches in length, but the points being broken, 
 we cannot of course determine this measurement correctly. This skull is 
 also more prominent in the upper part of the forehead, and has the " pro- 
 minent edge standing up along the middle of the forehead," which Pro- 
 fessor Nilsson of Lund gives as a specific character of this ox, more 
 distinctly marked than in any of the other specimens. The second skull 
 belongs to a much smaller animal, being nearly equal in size to the least 
 of those formerly described. The measurements here are: — Breadth 
 across the forehead between the horn-cores, 5J inches. The horn-cores 
 are nearly 3f inches in length, following the outer curvature; and their 
 circumference at the base is 4 inches. In this individual also the pro- 
 minence of the upper part of the forehead and of the occipital ridge is 
 very distinct. These specimens are interesting, as showing somewhat of 
 the range in the size and shape of this animal. "We may suppose the 
 smaller to be a cow, and the larger one a bull. But in all the varieties 
 of size, there is a constant general resemblance in character. 
 
 Professor Nilsson has described as a distinct species of ox, a variety 
 principally distinguished from the Bos longifrons, by having longer 
 pedicles to the horns, the forehead more rounded in front, and the ridge 
 of the occiput rising high in the centre, -which he has called the Bos frrni- 
 tosus; but you will observe that in the crania on the table, there is a 
 very considerable variety both in the prominence of the forehead and the 
 outline of the occipital ridge. 
 
 In a letter with which I have been favoured by Professor Owen, he 
 informs me that two of the specimens previously exhibited are the most 
 perfect crania of the Bos. longifrons which he has yet seen. And he 
 considers that they tend to strengthen his opinion of this ox being a 
 distinct species of fossil ox, all the varieties which it presents in the 
 dififerent specimens he has examined beiug within the limits of an 
 admitted I'ange; wlule he believes the Bos frontosus of Nilsson to be 
 merely a variety of the Bos longifrons. 
 
 This is the most ancient of the small sized cattle, being found in the 
 drifts and fresh-water deposits of the newer pliocene formation, along 
 with remains of the huge animals of that time, the elephant and the 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIEXT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 619 
 
 rliinoceros- and downwards through the deposits of the alluvium to the 
 period of man, as the specimens on the table show, shortly after which it 
 becomes lost as a species,— probably remaining in some of the domestic 
 cattle as its later posterity, and as a small additional evidence on this 
 point, I may mention that in one of the skulls previously described,! 
 there stUl remained three of the molar teeth, being the two last molars 
 of the upper jaw, and the third the last molar of the other side. These 
 I have compared with the teeth of our domestic cattle, and found them 
 to be almost identical in character, the arrangement of their enamel 
 folds and general structure being the same (see woodcut). 
 
 3. 2. 
 
 Two last (2d and 3d), Maxillary Molars of right side of small Short-homed Ox, Bos 
 longifroTis (Ovien). Found at Newstead, Roxburghshire. (See Plate, No. III.) 
 (natural size). 
 
 I believe these skulls to be the first remains of the Bos longi/raiis 
 which have been discovered in Scotland. 
 
 I may also mention, that in May 1853 there was presented to txie 
 Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland a portion of the lowei 
 jaw-bone of an ox, which had been found in a strange building, of several 
 chambers, covered by a tumulus, and called a "Picts' House," situated on 
 the western declivity of Wideford Hill, near Kirkwall, Orkney, which was 
 opened and particularly examined by George Petrie, Esq. The specimen, 
 which consists of a portion of the body of the jaw-bone, was lately 
 examined by Professor Queckett of the Eoyal College of Surgeons, London, 
 and was considered by him to belong to this same species of the Bos 
 
 1 Vide Plate, Ko. III. 
 
620 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JUNE 10, 1872. 
 
 longifroiis. It seems especially worthy of notice, as proving the existence 
 of this small ox in the Orkney Islands, at a very early period, when the 
 country in aU probability was inhabited by some of the primitive races of 
 our land ; and is, so far as I am aware, the first instance of its existence 
 beiag noticed so far to the north in Britain. 
 
 In conclusion, I may remark, that the occurrence of this Orkney 
 specimen, should we believe it to be a domesticated ox, is also interesting, 
 as it may be considered an additional evidence of the early inhabitants of 
 this country having tamed an original native breed, it being by no 
 means likely that in this comparatively remote place the domesticated ox 
 could have been derived from the cattle, introduced it may be, into the 
 southern parts of Britain by the Eoman colonist. 
 
 Note. — Having, through the kindness of Professor Fleming, examined 
 a skull of the Small-sized Ox of the Shetland Islands, I have added some 
 of its measurements for comparison with the small oxen referred to 
 here and in the previous communication. In this skull we have the pro- 
 minent edge in the middle of the forehead rising from the depression 
 between and rather above the orbits, and the rounded protuberance in the 
 central part of the supra-occipital ridge. The horn-cores, however, are 
 considerably longer and larger in proportion to the size of the skull, and 
 curve backwards, outwards, and upwards. 
 
 Measurements of Shull of Recent Shetland Ox. 
 
 111. Lin. 
 
 Leiigth of skull from supra-occipital ridge to front edge of 
 
 intermaxillary bones, ... . . 17 3 
 
 Length from supra-occipital ridge along centre of forehead 
 to nasal bones, ... ... 
 
 Length from roots of horn-cores to upper edge of orbits, . 
 
 Length of orbits, .... 
 
 Breadth of orbits, ... 
 
 Length from orbit to end of maxillary bone, 
 
 Length from orbit to front edge of intermaxillary bone, . 
 
 Breadth of forehead between middle of roots of hom-coie.-. 
 
 Breadth across narrowest part, 
 
 Breadth of skidl across middle of orbits, . 
 
 Breadth across front of intermaxillary bones, 
 
 7 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 (i 
 
 n 
 
 11 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 621 
 
 In. 
 
 Lin. 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 Horn-cores, ciroumferenoe of base, . 
 
 Horn-cores, length following outer curvature, . 
 
 Length of alveolar sockets of upper jaw, . .56 
 
 Height of skuU from supra-occipital ridge to upper edge of 
 
 foramen magnum, 4 6 
 
 Height of skull from supra-occipital ridge to the base of 
 
 theskuU, . 6 
 
 Breadth of occipital condyles, posteriorly, ... 3 10 
 
 In the " Statistical Account of Scotland," vol. i. Edinburgh, 1791, in 
 the account of the parish of Delting, Shetland, it is stated that the car- 
 case of a Shetland ox weighs from 3 to 4 cwts., that of a cow from 170 
 to 230 lbs. 
 
 I subjoin a few measurements of the skeleton of a young animal of 
 Bos longifrons, to give an idea of the size of this species of ox, taken 
 from Professor MIsson's paper already referred to : — 
 
 " Bos LONGIFRONS. 
 
 " General Character. — The forehead flattened, with a prominent edge standing 
 up along the middle, and a smaller indenting backwards ; the horns round, small, 
 and directed outwardly upwards, and bent in one direction forwards. 
 
 " To judge from the skeleton, it was 5 feet 4 inches long from the nape to the 
 end' of the rump-bone, the head about 1 foot 4 inches, so that the whole length 
 must have been about 6 feet 8 inches. From the slender make of its bones, its body 
 must rather have resembled a deer than our common tame ox ; its legs at the 
 extremities are certainly somewhat shorter and also thinner than those of a crown 
 deer (full-antlered stag). The skull is long and narrow, even more so than that 
 of a deer. 
 
 " The rest of skeleton most like that of the tame ox, but each bone in pro- 
 portion to the length is more slender and thin. 
 
 "Atlas: the breadth over the wings 4 inches 5 lines ; under the length of the 
 curve, 1 inch 3 lines ; axis about 3 inches. 
 
 "Shoulder Blade, Scapula: length, 11 inches 4 lines ; breadth, 6 inches 1 line; 
 from cav.-glen. to spin., 1 inch 7 lines, 
 
 "Humerus: length, 8 inches 6 lines ; breadth of lower joint's superficies, 2 
 inches 4 lines. 
 
 " Badius: about 10 inches in length. 
 
622 
 
 PROCEEI'IXGS OF THE SOCIETY, .TV.VE 10. 1ST2. 
 
 •• Mttacarpii> : length, 7 inches 3 lines ; breadth of lower articular surface. 2 
 inches. 
 
 " Fch-i-: length in a right line, 1 foot -2 inches 2 lines. Foram. obtirraf.. oral, 
 in front somewhat narrower. 
 
 " Fcimir: length. 11 inches 4 lines. 
 
 ''Tibia: length, 11 inches 4 lines. 
 
 ''Metatarsi's: length, 8 inches 4 lines. First toe joint, 2 inches : second, 1 
 inch 2 lines ; the hoof. 2 inches 2 lines in length. 
 
 In the first paper on the Bos longifron-^, I referred to an interesting 
 specimen shown to me V>y the late Professor John Fleming. D.D., in the 
 
 Portions of Skull of small Short-Homed Ox ifig. li, with Horns ^tigs. 2>, found by Ifr 
 James Crawley 25 feet below the surface of his hog, near Castle ConneU, county 
 Limerick, Ireland, in June 1S46, and given to ilr James Uenniston of O'Brien 
 Bridge, by whom it was presented to the ^Itiseum of the yew College, Edin- 
 burgh. lS4i>. 
 
 ^rnsetira of the Xew (. Mllege, Ediubiirgh, having both the horns, and also 
 remains ' ,f part of the skin with the hair attached, apparently showing a 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 628 
 
 rough shaggy hide like our Highland kyloes. Professor Duns has kindly 
 allowed me again to examine this skull. It shows distinctly the charactere 
 of the Bos Jongifrons. The upper part of the skull is separated at the 
 orbits from the superior maxillie, and the occipital hone is also separated. 
 The whole bones are of a dark brown colour, and have lost almost entirely 
 their mineral constituents, caused, as Professor Fleming was inclined to sup- 
 pose, by their exposure in the bog to a spring of water surcharged with 
 carbonic acid, which had apparentl}' dissolved tliem away. The bones, 
 having been soft, are now somewhat shrunk and split, but correspond 
 closely to Professor Owen's description and figures of the Bos lonffi'/rons. 
 
 It measures 6 inches from the prominent centre of the supi-a occipital 
 ridge or top of the forehead, to the upper edge of the orbit, and between 
 the roots of horn-cores 6| inches. The occipital condyles measure 3J 
 inches across the back part. The horn-cores measure, the right nearly 
 6, and the left 5f inclies in greatest length, along their outer curvature ; 
 and in circumference at the base, 3 inches. 
 
 The horny sheaths — tlie horns — are of much interest ; they are nearly 
 black in colour, and taper rapidly towards a rather sharp-pointed 
 extremity; the other end being probably expanded somewhat by its long 
 steeping in the bog. They now measure, the right 9J, and the left 8f 
 inches, along their greatest outer curvature; and in circumference at the 
 base, the right horn 7^, and the left 7 inches. '\'^Tien placed on the 
 horn-cores, they slope outwardly slightly downwards, and forwards, rising 
 above the plane of the forehead in front. 
 
 (3.) Notes of the Occureexce of the Eemaixs of Ancient Shoht- 
 HoRNED Cattle in differen-t Dtstricts of Scotland. 
 
 EOXBURGHSHIRE. 
 
 Xt'icstead. — Various specimens of Boii lovgifrons were found with 
 Roman remains in 1846-7. near Xewstead, of which I have given the 
 preceding detailed accounts. 
 
 Haicicl: — Sir "Walter Elliot of Wolfelee informs me that the skull and 
 different parts of the skeleton, he believes, of the Bos Jongifrons, Owen, 
 
624 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JUNE 10, 1872. 
 
 were found many years ago along with the bones of an elk (Cervus alces),^ 
 in the peat moss adjoining Williestruther's loch, near Wolfelee. The 
 loch lies not far from the river Slitrig, in the parish of Hawick. The 
 bones have now unfortunately all fallen aside. 
 
 KmKC0DBRIGHTSHIKE. 
 
 {Borgue, Bomess. — Since these notes were pat together, some bones of 
 the Bos longifrons, including a portion of the frontal bone with the char- 
 acteristic small horn-core, were exhibited at a meeting of the Society in 
 June 1873. They were some of the first-fruits of an exploration of a 
 cave on the line of cliffs to the south-west of the bay of Kirkcudbright, 
 on the farm of Borness, in the parish of Borgue. The cave is being care- 
 fully examined by Mr A. J. Corrie and Mi W. Brace Clarke, and fall 
 details will be published when they have concluded their investigation. 
 A short note of the commencement of this work is published in " Nature," 
 for August 7, 1873; it is there stated that the bones included ox, red- 
 deer, goat, horse, pig, pine-marten, rabbits, water-vole, &c., with remains 
 of birds, frogs, and fish, and rude implements of bone, stone, &c.) 
 
 WiGTONSHraE. 
 
 Dowalton Loch. — ^A lake-dwelling or crannog in Dowalton loch was 
 examined by Sir "William Maxwell of Monreath, Bart., and various bronze 
 vessels, &c., including a Roman patella, and numerous bones of animals, 
 were presented to the Museum by Sir "William in March 1865. These 
 included two frontal bones with horn-cores ; one a larger horn-core, 6i 
 inches in circumference at its base, and 3 inches long, its point being 
 broken off. The smaller horn-core measures 4^ inches in circumference, 
 and 3 inches long. Two portions of skulls, and also of lower jaws, all of 
 a small-sized ox, the Bos longifrons. 
 
 Edinburghshiee. 
 Inveresk. — Some remains of Roman pottery, amphorae, mortaria, &c., 
 along with bones of animals, deer and oxen, found at Inveresk, near 
 Musselburgh, were presented to the Museum by Admiral Sir Alexander 
 
 1 See Notice of Remains of Elk found in Scotland, " Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot." vol. 
 ix. p. 326. 
 
NOTES OX THE AXCIF.XT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 625 
 
 Milne, Iv.C.B., in May 1865. The bones of the oxen may probably be 
 referred to the Bos longifrons of the Eoman period. 
 
 KirRcith} — A curious double-bladed and edged bronze implement, of a 
 unique character (3f in. long), -was found at a depth of nearly 11 feet 
 from the surface, in an undisturbed bed of gravel, along with some of 
 the bones of a small-sized ox, and the radius from the right fore-leg of a 
 moderate-sized dog, in the valley of the "Water of Leith, at Kinleith, not 
 far from the village of Currie. The gravel-bed was overlaid by beds of 
 sand and clay aiid the ordinary vegetable mould, and was nearly 300 
 feet distant from the present bed of the stream. The bones of the ox 
 consisted of part of the left hip-joint or acetabulum, with a portion of 
 the pubic bone attached, lower portions of the tibia or leg-bone, and the 
 cannon or metatarsal bone of the same side ; also the condyles or lower 
 part of the femur or thigh-bone of the right. _ From the small size of 
 these bones, they may be supposed to belong to the Bos lonffifrons. 
 They were presented by me to the Museum of the Society in 1863. 
 
 Edinhurgli, North Loch. — James M'Bain, M.D., RN., &c., informs 
 me that he has in his possession portions of three specimens of the Bos 
 Jongifroyis, which w;ere discovered in 1870 when excavating for the 
 foundations of the "SVaverley Station of the North British Railway, in the 
 valley extending from the north of the Castle Eock between the Old 
 and iSTew Towns of Edinburgh, the site formerly of the Xor' Loch. 
 The bones consisted : one, of part of the frontal bone, irith the left horn- 
 core, outer curvature measuring 4i inches, and its circumference at the 
 base 5 inches j another specimen included the whole upper part of the 
 frontal bone, with both horn-cores attached ; the horn-cores each measured 
 4 inches along their outer curvatui-e, and 4 laches in circumference round 
 the base of the horns ; it measured also 4 inches across the forehead, 
 between the roots of the horn-cores. The last specimen was also part of 
 the frontal bone, with the right horn-core attached ; it measured along its 
 outer curvature 4i inches, and its circumference at the base 5 inches. 
 The bones were found along with abundant masses of lacustrine shells, 
 
 ^ See Eemarks on a Bronze Instrument found with liones of ox and dog in a lied 
 of rirer grarel, &e., " Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. vol. v. p. S4. 
 
626 PKOCEEDiyCrS of the SOCIEXy, JUXE lO, 1872. 
 
 Planorhig, Lymneus, &c., the greater portion imbroken, thus showing the 
 character of the formation, as the bottom of the old loch. The age of 
 these remains is of course very uncertain. The hones were presented to 
 Dr M'Baia by Alexander Christie, Esq., by whom they were discovered 
 and preserved. 
 
 Inehkeitli. — In the account of a kitchen midden of uncertain age, 
 discovered on the island of Inchteith, in the Firth of Forth, in 1872, 
 by David Grieve, Esq., F.S.A. Scot., and published in the Proceedings 
 of the Society, he describes various animal remains, including those of 
 small-sized cattle. There were also found the remains of the grey seal, 
 Halichterus grypus. 
 
 Haddingtonshire. 
 
 SeacUff. — In April 1870, a paper was read before the Society by J. W. 
 Laidlay, of Seachff, Esq.,^ giving detaUs of an ancient structure built of 
 dry stone waUs, and a kitchen midden: discovered on an isolated rock, 
 known as the " Ghegan,'' on the sea-shore near Seacliff. The lower part of 
 the building is about 22 or 23 feet above high-water mark, and among 
 the remains of ancient occupation some pins of different sizes, needles, 
 and ornamental combs of bone, were found; a few fragments of coarse pot- 
 tery, a quern, &c., and various animal remains; besides a few human 
 bones, — " of oxen a great abundance, and consisting of several varieties, 
 the Bos longifroits including a right metacarpal bone (named apparently 
 by Prof. Owen), and others ; sheep also, in very great abundance, and of a 
 small size ; goats, a few ; horses, pretty numerous, of a small size ; hogs, a 
 few; deer, the red-deer, the roe ; dogs, several, of a large size ; rodents, the 
 water vole, &c.; birds and fishes, a very few ; besides the remains of 
 rabbits, rats, &c., of which, as they might find their way naturally to the 
 deposit, no account need be taken." — P. 374. 
 
 On mentioning the somewhat Celtic-like name of " Ghegan ' to the 
 Eev. Thomas M'Lauchlan, LL.D., F.S.A. Scot., our well-known Celtic 
 scholar, he told me, it might be explained as Gaelic — " Geogan," the "little 
 bay, or the little thing or rock at the bay," which seemed to be descriptive 
 of the locality ; the Saxon goe, which is synonymous with the Celtic geo 
 ' Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot. vol. viii. p. 372. 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 627 
 
 or geotha, — an inlet, is, however, also a possible root : or the old Icelandic 
 Gja ; but the an is a true Celtic termination. 
 
 Drem, Balgone. — Some bones of the Bos longifrons, found 15 feet under 
 a peat moss at Balgone, were presented to the Museum of Science and 
 Art, Edinburgh, by Sir G. Grant Suttie, Bart. These consist of the 
 broken upper portion of a small skull with horn -cores, lower jaw, femur, 
 (Src. They measure, — 
 
 In. Lin. 
 
 Horn-cmcs : — 
 
 Right, length along greater curvature. 
 
 Circumference of base, 
 Left, length nearly, ... 
 
 Circumference of base, .... 
 
 Lower jaw, portion of body of left side with two molar teeth, 
 
 depth behind last molar, 
 Fi-mur, greatest length. 
 
 Length between articular surfaces, . 
 Breadth across lower articulation. 
 Sacrum, length inside, 
 
 Linlithgowshire. 
 
 Kinneil. — A skull and part of the pelvis of a short-horned ox, found 
 in a moss at Kinneil, were presented to the Museum of the Society hy 
 Dr "Walter Adam in 1849. The skull is tolerably perfect, the anterior 
 part of the superior maxillaries being broken away. It has two short 
 horn-cores, and there is also a rounded broken aperture in the front of 
 the forehead. It measures in, — 
 
 Length from the middle of occipital ridge to transverse 
 
 nasal suture, . . . 8f inches. 
 
 Do. to upper part of orbits, . . 7| 
 
 Horn-cores, in length, right, . 3 
 
 Do. do. left, . i 
 
 Do, circumference at base, 6 
 
 Orbits, length, . . 2i 
 
 Do. breadth, . . . 2f 
 
 Length of alveolar sockets. . 4| 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 9 
 
 9 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
628 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JUNE 10, 1872. 
 
 The irmominate bones of the pelvis measure 1 ft. 3 in. in greatest 
 length ; 1 ft. 4 in. greatest breadth above, and 9 J inches across the 
 front of pelvis at upper part of acetabula. These bones are of much 
 interest, from the locality where they were found. In some notes which 
 were published in voL vui. of the Proceedings of the Society, describing 
 the large Roman sculptured stone ' got at Grange, near Borrowstounness, 
 in the immediate neighbourhood of Kinneil, I called attention to the 
 fact that KinneU meant in Gaelic the "Head of the "Wall," and it was 
 in this neighbourhood, probably near where the sculptured stone was 
 found, that the Roman wall between the Forth and Clyde terminated. 
 ITie skull, therefore, was found in a locality anciently occupied by the 
 Eomans. 
 
 Lanarkshire. 
 Glasgow. — In a paper published in the " Transactions of the Geo- 
 logical Society of Glasgow," voL ii. p. 152, 1867, " On the Occurrence 
 of Bos longifrons and Bos primigenius in the Ancient Drift of the Clyde," 
 read to the Society on 12th April 1866 by Mr James Bennie, of H.M. 
 Geological Survey, to which my attention was called by Mr John Toung 
 of the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow. Mr Bennie states that " part of the 
 forehead of a small ox, which Dr Scoular has recognised as of the Bos 
 longifrons, one of the extinct cattle of Clydesdale," was found " in 
 true river drift at Eutherglen loan, Gorbals." The horn, which I have 
 had an opportunity of examining, measures 5j inches across the forehead 
 between the roots of the horn-cores. The small horn-cores are each 
 broken, the right measuring 4^ inches in circumference at the root, and 
 the left the same, and 2 inches in length to its fractured extremity. The 
 excavation was for a sewer extending several hundred yards. It was 
 seven or eight feet deep, and was clearly and unmistakeably thorough 
 river sand and gravel, characterised throughout by the same kind of 
 vegetable remains which mark the Clyde drift so emphatically elsewhere. 
 The forehead of the ox had been dug out of a bed of fine grey sand, 
 fcom a depth probably of about seven feet, and it had every appearance 
 of having lain long in water before it had been silted up. Mr Bennie 
 considered that this skull belonged probably to what he called the canoe 
 ' Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. toI. viii. p. 112, 1S69. 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 629. 
 
 period of the Clyde, more especially as there were two small oval holes 
 nearly together, just behind the occipital ridge, which he considered had 
 been made by the hand and tools of man. He found in the same bed 
 a small perforated stone, 1 inch long, which he considered had also 
 been manufactured by man. 
 
 STIRLINGSHmE. 
 
 Blair-Dnimmond. — In the course of the extensive operations used 
 many years ago for draining the peat-moss at Blair-Drummond, near Stir- 
 ling, various relics of early antiquity were discovered ; stone celts, ham- 
 mers, arrow-heads, &c. The remains of various small short-horned cattle 
 were also found; and the horny sheaths or horns of apparently three 
 different specimens of these cattle were exhibited to the Society by G. 
 Home Drummond, Esq. 
 
 The largest of these — a horn of the right side of the head — measures 
 11 f inches in greatest length along its larger and outer curvature, and &\ 
 inches in circumference about the middle of its length, or rather a little 
 nearer the point, where the horn remains perfect. A label, apparently 
 belonging to this horn, states that it was found about 1816, a few inches 
 under the surface of the clay, below the moss in Kirklane, in John Fer- 
 guson's land, and is initialed H. H. D. by the late Henry Home Drum- 
 mond, of Blair-Drummond, Esq. 
 
 The next, also a right horn, measures 10|- inches in length along its 
 outer curvature, and 5J- inches in circumference at about half its length, 
 where the horn begins to be more perfect. It is labelled as having 
 been found near the bottom of the Ghalonerston Moss, in May 1861. 
 The smallest, a horn of the left side of the head, measures only 6f 
 inches in length along its outer curvature, and 4J inches in circumference 
 about the middle of the horn, where it is perfect. These horns are dark- 
 coloured or black ; they curve from the root gently outwards and rather 
 upwards, then slightly downwards and forwards towards the tip, which 
 again, as in the first horn, rises slightly upwards. The horn (No. 2), has 
 the tip curved rather more inwards than the others, like that of the 
 modern " short-horned " cattle. The horns are much split into layers 
 near the roots, and all taper rather rapidly to a small and somewhat fine 
 and sharp-pointed extremity. 
 
630 PUOCEEniXGS of the society, JUXE 10, 1S72. 
 
 Kincardineshire. 
 
 St Cyrus — Lower Warburfon. — At a meeting of the Eoyal Physical 
 Society of Ediaburgh on the 28th March 1866, a communication was read 
 from Dr J. C. Howden, Montrose, " On a Bone Cave at Lower Warhur- 
 ton, Kincardineshire,'' which is published in their Proceedings (Edin- 
 burgh, vol. iiL) Dr Howden states that the cave was discovered in 
 1847, in a range of trap cliffs on the farm of Lower Warburton, in the 
 parish of St Cyrus. It is situated about haK a mile from the estuary 
 of the North Esk, and fifteen feet above high-water mark. A short 
 account of it was published by the late Mr Alexander Bryson in the 
 "Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal" for 1850. The late Mr 
 AVUliam Beattie, Montrose, also read a notice of this cave before the 
 British Association, at its meeting in Aberdeen in 1859. The entrance 
 of the cave, which was about 1 2 feet wide by about 5 feet high, faces 
 the south, and its cavity, consisting of two chambers, widened to about 
 20 feet broad, with a varying height of 20 or 30 feet. It was filled with 
 a loamy soU, portions of stalagmite being found in it, and a great quantity 
 of organic remains. These consisted of an extraordinary abundance of 
 the shells of recent edible mollusca from the sea-shore, Buccinum, Mytilus, 
 Gardium, Patella, &c, along with the bones of various animals Gervus 
 
 elaphus and cajyreolus, Bos , Sus, Erinaceus enropceus, Felis cattis, 
 
 Canis famillaris, vulpes, Hypudaus or Vole, Miis, &c, and bird bones of 
 the Sida hassana, in considerable quantity, all these bones were chiefly 
 broken into small fragments, the shafts being split open. A portion of 
 a human parietal bone and radius were also found. 
 
 Some portions of coarse pottery ornamented outside with a small 
 cord-like pattern, were also noticed, one of these vessels, charred inside, 
 had been about 10 inches in diameter; another, not charred, had measured 
 about 7 inches. Dr Howden has sent me drawings of some of the bones 
 collected, and I find the remains of the ox had apparently belonged to 
 the Bos longifrom, one of the horn-cores measuring about 6J inches in 
 length along its outer curvature, and 5J inches in circumference at 
 its base, and another about 5| inches in length, and 4f inches in 
 circumference. 
 
 Dr Howden is inclined to consider the contents of this cave as cor- 
 responding to the kitchen-middens of the Danish antiquaries, and supposes 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 631 
 
 it had been occupied as a place of human hahitation, hut that there was 
 no evidence of its probable age. Few caves have been as yet explored 
 in Scotland ; much interest is therefore attached to any such account; 
 and it would have been of great importance had the whole' contents 
 of the cave been carefully examined. Captain Ktzmaurice Scott, the 
 proprietor, on William Beattie's recommendation, commenced the explora- 
 tion, but unfortunately part of the roof fell in, a mass of rock of 
 many tons weight, and precluded further research. This is much to 
 be regretted, and its interest would have been iucreased by the fact, that 
 a race of wandering cave-dwellers or gipsies still'exist along some parts of 
 our rocky north-eastern coasts of Scotland. 
 
 Forfarshire. 
 Cupar-Angus. — Stewart T. M. Hood, Esq., in April 1863, presented to 
 the Museum some bones and teeth of a smaU-sized ox, apparently the 
 Bos longifrons, which were found in an underground building, or " Picts' 
 House," along wth portions of rusty iron, and two small pieces of red 
 embossed Samian ware, suggesting the probability of its being of con- 
 temporaneous age with the Eoman occupation of Britain. 
 
 EOSS-SHIRE. 
 
 Tain. — When some draining operations were going on in the Morhhaieh 
 Mor, or great grazing, a flat sandy tract on the south shore of the Dornoch 
 Firth, near the town of Tain, various bones — the lower jaw of a dog, a 
 tine of a rein-deer,^ and some bones of a small ox — were found in a peat 
 moss in 1866 by the Eev. J. M. Joass, and were all presented to the 
 Museum of the Society. Of these, deeply dyed by the peat, one was the 
 frontal portion of the skull, with the characteristic smaU horn-core of left 
 side, measuring 4 inches in circumference at the base, the horn being 
 broken towards the point ; with other bones of the ancient small ox, 
 the Bos longifrons. 
 
 SUTHERLANDSHIRB. 
 
 cm Trolla. — In the Broch of Cill Trblla,^ examined by the Eev. J. M, 
 
 1 See " On Eemains of Eeindeer found in Scotland," Proc, vol. viii. p. 186. 
 ^ Archselogia Scotica, vol. v. ; Account of " The Brochs of Cill Trolla " &c. 
 VOL. ly. PART II. 2 s 
 
632 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JPNE 10, 1RT2. 
 
 Joass of Golspie, numerous early implemeiits of stone and bone Avere 
 found ; and the remains of various animals, — red deer, rein-deer, horse, 
 pig, whale, and cattle were found; among the remains of the cattle is the 
 horn-core of a small ox, apparently the Bos longifrons. This horn-core 
 measures about 4 inches in length. 
 
 CAiTHirEsa. 
 Kettlehum. — A. Henry Ehind, of Sibster, Esq., presented to the 
 Museum of the Society, April 1854, a collection of various archseological 
 relics and osteological remains found in the ruins of a broch or so-called 
 Pictish Tower opened by him at Kettleburn, near Wick. The bones were 
 examined by Mr Queckett of London, and give an interesting glimpse of 
 the early fauna of Caithness. Mr Queckett's notes were published in the 
 " Archaeological Journal," London, vol. x. p. 223. The bones include 
 those of deer, roebuck, horse, ox, sheep of smaU size, goats, pigs, seal, 
 whale, &c. Among those in the Museum is a portion of the skull of 
 Bos longifrons, with horn-core of left side, 5 inches long and 6 inches in 
 circumference at the base, and a portion of a lower jaw, Mr Ehind says, — 
 " showing the existence of this extinct species of ox when these dwellings 
 were inhabited." 
 
 Keiss. — Samuel Laing, Esq., M.P., presented to the Museum, in 
 January 1867, a large collection of stone, bone, and bronze implements, 
 along with portions of human skeletons and animal remains found at 
 Keiss. They are folly described in the " Prehistoric Eemains of Caith- 
 ness," published by him, London, 1866. Numerous remains of the 
 Bos longifrons were found. In a paper on the " Age of the Brochs and 
 some other Prehistoric Eemains of Orkney and Caithness," by Mr Laing, 
 read at the meeting in January 1867, and published in vol. viL of the 
 Proceedings of the Society, he states at page 67, where he gives details 
 of the fauna and food of the inhabitants of these Brochs, that he con- 
 siders it was similar to that of the dwellers at Keiss. He mentions, 
 besides the red deer, horse, pig, goat, or sheep, the dog, fox, whales, 
 and birds, including the now apparently extinct Alca impennis or great 
 auk, fish, &c., and — " the ox, always the short-horned species, apparently 
 Bos longifrons." — P. 67. To which I have since added the reindeer. 
 
XOTES OX THE AXCJEXT CATTLE OF SCOTLAXD. boo 
 
 Thrirm-ftcr Little. — !Mr Joliii Eremnor, jun., in June 1S70, presented 
 to the Museum a horn-core, 3 inclios long and ij in circumference at the 
 base, from the h^ft side of tlie slcull of the Bo.ilniiiiifroiif. It was found, 
 along with an antler of red deer partially cut through with a hatciiet, and 
 showing also marks of a saw; in a Lroch at Thrumster Little. 
 
 Tiir/iouse. — In the Broch of Tarhonse some remains of animals were 
 discovered by ilr Joseph Anderson, and were presented liy him to the 
 ^luseum. These include a portion of the frontal bone, with the left horn- 
 core of the Bus Inngifrons, the point broken, and measuring 5 iiiclies 
 iu circumference at the base of the horn; and also a horn of the rein- 
 deer, i 
 
 Orkxey. 
 
 MiiinlanJ. Kirl-'call. — In my second notice of tlic Bos longifriDts. T 
 have referred to the lower jaw of an ox, defined by Prof. Queckett of 
 Loudon as the Bus loiojifr'ins, being found by George Petrie, Esq., Cor. 
 iMem. S. -V.Scot, Kirkwall, iu a ■' Picts' House" on "Wideford Hill, irear 
 Kirkwall, in ISfO. It was presented by Mr Petrie to the ^luseum in 
 i\Iay 18.^3, and is a portion of the body of tlie right side of the lower 
 jaw. Four molar teeth still remain in their sockets. 
 
 Jlaiiilojid, Bill/ of Sluiill. Sl;nro. — The upper part of skull with right 
 horn-core of a small ox was found among the animal remains at the 
 underground building at Skara. The horn-core measured 7 inches in 
 length, and 7 inches in circumference at its base. It seemed allied at 
 least to the Bos loiiijifrons. A humerus 10 inches long was also presented 
 to the Museum. 
 
 i^Xoiih RoitaJJslioDj. Biirrian. — Xumerous stone and bone implements 
 and the remains of various animals found in the ruins of the Broch of 
 Burrian, Xorth Eonaldshay, were recently presented to the ^Museum of 
 the Society by Dr T\"illiam Traill. Among these remains there are 
 two of an ox resembling the Bos ]on<jifroiis . one has part of the frontal 
 bone, with the horn-core of the right side ; it measures 4 inches in length, 
 ' See "On Bemains of Eeindeer in Scotland," Proc. voL viii. p. 1S6. 
 
634 PROCEEUINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JUNE 10, 1872. 
 
 and 7i laches ia circumference at the base. The other has a broken 
 horn-core, 3 inches long, and is 8| inches in circumference at its base. 
 Among the numerous bones of cattle two phalangeal bones were found, 
 apparently of this same smaU ox, having cut on one of them two of the 
 so-called symbols of the "Sculptured Stones of Scotland;" the other had 
 apparently been spoiled in the execution of the pattern of another figure 
 or symbol.) 
 
 Hebrides. 
 
 Island of Harris.— In February 1860 Dr James M'Bain, RX., read a 
 paper before the Eoyal Physical Society ^ here " On Various Osteological 
 Eemains found in a Pict's House or Ancient Underground Building at 
 Msibost in Harris," by Captain Thomas of H.M. surveying ship 
 "Woodlark." The remains included bones of the dog, common seal, the 
 red deer, a small-sized sheep, and horse, also of smaU size, and of the 
 Bos longifrons, or small short-homed ox, a horn- core measuring 3 J inches 
 along its outer curvature, and 3f inches in circumference round its base ; 
 teeth, bones, &c. Captain Thomas, RX., Cor. Mem. S.A. Scot., 
 described the peculiar ancient structure in which these remains were 
 found in an important memoir " On the Primitive Dwellings of the 
 Outer Hebrides," published in the Proceedings of the Society, vol. vii. 
 1867, p. 153.^ 
 
 The Age or Geological Eaxge op the Small Shokt-Hoened Ox, 
 Bos Longifrons, in Britain, and especially in Scotland. 
 
 In England the remains of this ox has been found in alluvial beds and 
 peat bogs. They are associated also with early traces of human existence, 
 as well as in the tombs or barrows of the early inhabitants, as described 
 by Dr John Thumam, of Wiltshire; and especially with remains of 
 the Roman occupation. In Ireland these smaU. cattle have been found in 
 the peat mosses in numerous instances, and in various localities, and also 
 associated with the early traces of man's occupation in different districts 
 of the country. 
 
 Professor Richard Owen, in his well-known " British Fossil Mammals," 
 > Proc. Eoy. Phys. Soc. Edin., rol. ii. 
 
NOTES ON THE A^'CIE^■T CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 635 
 
 Loudon, 1847, from which I have so often quoted, tells us, that among 
 the various remains of this animal, the Bos longifrons, examined by him, 
 there were some from the peat bogs, others from the sub-turbary marls 
 of Ireland ; and there were also other specimens which had been obtained 
 along with the remains of various extinct mammalia, such as the 
 Elephas and the Rhinoceros, from different fresh-water deposits of 
 England. Professor Owen therefore concluded, as I have already stated 
 in my firat paper, that the geological age of this small short-horned ox 
 apparently extended from the times of the early inhabitants of the 
 country, backwards through the bogs and marls of the alluvium, to the 
 caves, and the drifts, and fresh-water deposits of the Newer Pliocene 
 Period. 
 
 In an interesting memoir " On the Prehistoric Mammalia of Great 
 Britain," by "W. S. Boyd Dawkins, M.A., Szc, pubHsbed in the "Trans- 
 actions of the International Congress of Prehistoric Archseology at 
 Xorwich," London, 1868, lilr Dawkins states that he had examined 
 carefully many of the localities where the fossil remains of various 
 animals had been found; and he tells us that in the localities of Clacton 
 and "Walton in Essex, from which Professor Owen got sent to him the 
 bones of the Bos longifrons, associated with those of the Ulephas and the 
 EJiinoceros; he found the beds containing these ancient fossil mammals, 
 and over them other and newer alluvial beds, which contained the remains 
 of more recent animals, as the goat, &g. Both these sets of beds were exposed 
 to the wear and tear of the sea, and he therefore considers the associa- 
 tion of the bones of the Bos Jongifrons and the older fossil mammalia, 
 the elephants, &c., was due merely to the accidental aggregation of them 
 on the shingle of the sea-shore. Other recorded instances of the associa- 
 tion of the Bos longifi-ons with the older fossil mammals may, he thinks, 
 be explained by a similar accidental aggregation of the bones of animals 
 belonging really to very different geological periods. Or, in other cases, 
 from the bones of the Bos longifrons being mistaken for those of the 
 Bison minor of Owen, which he believes to have been associated with the 
 older fossU. extinct mammalia. Sir Dawkins comes thus to the conclusion 
 that this short-horned ox is not older geologically than what he terms 
 the " Prehistoric Period," when it makes its appearance along with the 
 goat and the dog. This period he thinks it necessary to separate from 
 
636 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JUNE 10, 1872. 
 
 the Post-Glacial Period, and defines as the interval between the British 
 Post-Glacial Period and the dawn of history. 
 
 The various instances of the existence of this short-homed ox in 
 Scotland, which I have been able to coUect, add little to its geological 
 history ; my notes have, however, been principally taken from the results 
 of archseological inquiries, and they show the relation of this small ox to 
 man, rather than its general history in the country. In so far as my 
 notes enable me to go, I find this smaU-sized ox associated apparently 
 with our early races of men, probably as a domesticated animal, as shown 
 by its remains in his kitchen middens and the ruins of his ancient dwell- 
 ings, his underground and " Picts' Houses," and his " Brochs," &c., as 
 well as with the traces of the Eoman occupation of the south of Scot- 
 land. Older than these, it may be, I find its remains, as far as I have 
 been able to discover, in the caves, the peat bogs, the lacustrine forma- 
 tions and the river drifts and gravels throughout the country. From the 
 entire absence, however, of the remains of the larger extinct mammalia, as 
 the elephant and the rhinoceros, &c., from at least our river drifts and 
 gravels, it is not easy to contrast the age of our Scottish gravel-beds with 
 those of England. The very few remains of the elephant as yet discovered 
 in Scotland have been found apparently only in the boulder clay, inter- 
 calated with it or underneath it. At the time these animals lived in 
 England, Scotland is believed, by some geologists, to have been either 
 in a great measure submerged, covered with water, or to have had its 
 lands deeply overlaid with an extensive covering of snow and ice. 
 
 Strange to say, a horn of a rhinoceros was " found in one of the marl-pits 
 at the Loch of Forfar." From the interest attached to this old discovery, 
 which has apparently never had given to it the importance it deserved, I 
 may be excused a slight digression. It was exhibited by Professor Jameson 
 to the "Wernerian Society on the 25th January 1823, and was presented to 
 the Museum of the University. The donation of a "Ehinoceros horn, found 
 ia the Loch of Forfar, by Mr Stephens," is included in the MS. "Catalogue 
 of Donations to the College Museum in 1822—23." The next donation is 
 that of an " Anas fidigula" also by Mr Stephens, and we find by a subse- 
 quent donation of another Scottish bird the " Anas tadmma," recorded as 
 being made by " Mr Stephens of Dundee ;" that the residence of the 
 donor of the rliinoceros horn was at Dundee, the largest and most im- 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 637 
 
 portant town of the county of Forfar. In the MS. Minute-book of the 
 Wernerian Society for 25th January 1823, it is recorded of Professor 
 Jameson — " He then exhibited the horn of a rhinoceros, found in one of 
 the marl-pits of the Loch of Forfar, and stated reasons for believing it 
 to have belonged to one of the Ehinoceri which formerly inhabited this 
 island." Professor John Fleming, D.D., refers to this same horn in his 
 " Eemarks illustrative of the Influence of Society on the Distribution of 
 British Animals," published in the " Edinburgh Philosophical Journal," 
 vol. xi, 1824, and states that — "A specimen of the horn of the fossil rhino- 
 ceros, found in one of the marl-pits at the Loch of Forfar (Wern. Mem. 
 vol. iY. p. 582) exists at present in the Edinburgh Museum, and we 
 have been informed by Professor Jameson that two other examples have 
 occurred in Blair-Drummond Moss on the banks of the Forth. It is to 
 be hoped that the skulls will yet be procured."— (P. 297.) I cannot 
 find anything to show that Professor Jameson^ ever personally examined 
 these last supposed horns of the rhinoceros found in Blair-Drummond 
 Moss, and as several horns of cattle were found, some of which I 
 have referred to and described in ray Notes, it is perhaps not impossible 
 these macerated and partially split horny sheaths — the horns of the ox 
 • — may have been mistaken by the describer for those of the rhinoceros. 
 I cannot, however, think the same objection can be justly made to the 
 horn, so carefully examined and preserved, which was found at the Loch 
 of Forfar. The only other instances of the discovery of the horns of an 
 extinct rhinoceros known to me are the two referred to by Professor Owen 
 (' British Fossil Mammals," p. 353), found with their frozen carcases in 
 Siberia — one mentioned by Pallas in his " Voyages dans L'Asie Septen- 
 trionale," 1793^the other now preserved in the Museum of Natural 
 History at Moscow. The latter, probably the first or nasal horn of the 
 B. tichorimis of Cuvior, measures 3 feet in length. From the small size of 
 the Scottish specimen, it may be supposed to have been possibly the second 
 or smaller horn of a young wooUy rhinoceros, B, ticlim-inus, Guv., if it 
 did not belong to a smaller and more slender species altogether. I have 
 been trying to trace out this specimen (a note of which I may at some other 
 time lay before the Society), and am inclined to believe that it still exists 
 as a small-pointed and much weathered horn in the Museum of Science 
 
 iSee lEem. Wern. Soc. vol. v. p. 573 (5th Feb. 1825.) 
 
638 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JUNE 10, 1872. 
 
 and Art. It measures about 7 inches in height along the front slope of 
 the horn, and about 5 J inches in the longest diameter of its oval base. 
 
 Then when you try to understand the arrangement of other liver 
 drifts and gravels, as, for example, the celebrated beds at Amiens, 
 &c., in France, you find one set of geologists mapping them all out, 
 into gravel of the recent period with remains of recent animals and 
 its so-called " neolithic weapons," covered with loam of the same age ; 
 then lower level valley-gravel, with the remains of extinct mammalia, its 
 " palseoUthic weapons," and its covering loam; next, higher level vaUey- 
 gravel, with contents similar to the last, and also with its loam of the 
 same age; and lastly, upland gravel, of various kinds and periods. These 
 different river gravels, with their recent and extinct mammalia and their 
 neolithic and palseolithio weapons, are also found in England. Another 
 and later observer, however, goes over to make a careful examination of 
 these same river gravels in France. I refer to A. Tylor, Esq., F.L.S., 
 F.G.S., who has published a careful and elaborate memoir "On the 
 Amiens Gravel" in the Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 
 xxiv. 1868 ; and one of the conclusions he has arrived at is — " That the 
 whole of the Amiens vaUey gravel is of one formation, of similar mineral 
 character, contains nearly similar organic remains, and belongs to a date 
 not much antecedent to the historical period." So that I fear the whole 
 subject of the age and arrangement of these river gravels would seem still 
 to be an open and undecided question, and I am by no means astonished 
 at this conclusion; when I remember the astounding changes caused by 
 a few days rain, flooding the Highland vaUeys of the Spey, the Findhom, 
 and other neighbouring streams, so graphically described by Sir TTiomas 
 Dick Lauder, Bart, in his " Account of the Great Floods of August 1829, 
 in the Province of Moray, and adjoining districts," Edinbui^h 1830; 
 new editions of which have been quite recently published. As yet, how- 
 ever, I have not been able to collect any data which appear to show the 
 presence of this small-sized ox in any of the earlier geologic formations of 
 Scotland. 
 
 The Eoman occupation of Britain began in the first century of the 
 Christian era, and it was in the beginning of the fifth that a Roman 
 legion last visited Scotland, attempting to restore with the sword their 
 dominion over the south of Scotland. It is to the earlier years of Roman 
 
NOTES OiN THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 639 
 
 rule that I have been inclined to date the principal occupation of their 
 station of Trimontium, near Newstead in Eoxhurghshire, at the base of 
 the triple EUdon.'^ Then as to the age of the circular stone towers or 
 brochs of the north of Scotland, with all their numerous rude bone and 
 stone implements, &c., Mr Joseph Anderson has shown, and I think with 
 great probability, that their existence may be dated from about the fifth or 
 sixth down even to the eighth or ninth centuries.^ The presence of the 
 remains of tMs small short-horned ox in many of the sites referred to, in 
 different parts of the country, thus brings its existence apparently quite 
 down to historic times, when it becomes lost at last among the varying 
 groups and breeds of our ordinary domestic cattle. 
 
 Mr Youatt, from whose valuable work " On Cattle " I have already 
 quoted, tells us, — " The slightest observation will convince us that the 
 cattle of Devonshire, Sussex, Wales, and Scotland are all essentially the 
 same." The original type in these various localities was apparently a 
 small, active, somewhat short-horned animal, very different indeed from 
 the fine, soft-skinned, carefully bred kind of cattle, now known by 
 the designation of a " short-horn," but probably a rather small-sized, 
 rough, shaggy-haired, hardy animal, still represented, it may be, in some 
 of these characters by its probable descendants, the "Welsh and High- 
 land, and probably also the Orkney and Shetland cattle; as well as the 
 ancient white cattle preserved at Hamilton Palace or Cadzow Park, 
 and in the park of ChUlingham Castle. This original type, however, 
 has been since much changed, and adapted by careful selection and breed- 
 ing, to the taste and fancied standard of excellence of each particular dis- 
 trict of the country. 
 
 I am indebted to our treasurer, David Douglas, Esq., E.S.A. Scot., 
 for the accompanying sketch of our improved kyloe or Highland cattle 
 by the talented artist, Gourlay Steele, II.S..A. It is taken from the very 
 spirited and amusing " Sketches of Highland Character,'' one of the series 
 
 1 Roman Antiquities found at Newstead, fioxburghshire. Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., 
 vol. 1. p. 28, 1855 ; and Arcliseologia Scotica, vol. iv. p. 422. ' 
 
 " Notice of tlie Brocli of Yarhouse, &c. , with remarks on the Period of the Brochs, 
 &c., Proc, vol. ix. p. 292, 1871 ; and Archaeol. Scot., vol. v. 
 
640 
 
 PUOCEEWXGS OF THE SOCIETY, Jl'XE 10, 1ST2. 
 
 of " Odds and Ends," lately issued by Messrs Edmonston. and Douglas, 
 publishers, Edinburgh. 
 
 ItiSTlUBUIION OU li.VXGE OF THE S-MALL ShORT-HoUXED Ox. J)i>S 
 
 Loiiijifron-s, ix Britaix, axd especially ix Scotlaxd. 
 
 rrofessor Nilssou tells us of the Bos Jvnijifi-oin that — 
 
 " Their remains have been found in turf bogs, and in the south of Scania it 
 hved contemporaneously ■svith the Eein-chcr and Bos primigcnivs. "With us, 
 and as far as we know, over all Europe, they were, as wild, exterminated before 
 the so-called Historic period." 
 
 In the list of the animal remains from '• The .Swiss Lake Dwellings,'' 
 !ii\en in Dr Keller's woik, translated bv ^[t J, E. Lee, Professor I\uti- 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 641 
 
 nieyer states that this small ox, to which he refers under its synonjine 
 of Bos ti-achyceros, occurs at Robenhausen, one of the earlier sites with its 
 bone and stone implements ; and iadeed everywhere. He refers also to 
 the -Bos frontosus, Nilsson (which Professor Owen considers, as I have 
 mentioned, to be merely a variety of the same species), as occurring at 
 Bieune. Professor Eutimeyer, howevei', also adds to his list two or three 
 additional named species, or rather, perhaps, domesticated varieties of the 
 Bos fauru^, the Bos tawus trochocei-os, and Bos taunts domcsticus; as 
 well as the Bos taurus primigeiiiiis, referred by him to the large-sized 
 cattle which I shall afterwards describe. 
 
 In England and Ireland the osseous remains of the small-sized ox, the 
 Bos Jongifrons, have been found in many places over the country. 
 
 In Scotland, as I have attempted to show, this small-sized short-horned 
 ox at a comparatively early period existed over the whole length and 
 breadth of the laud, from the south to the extreme north of the country, 
 and even to the Orkney Islands beyond, as well as apparently to the 
 Hebrides on the western coasts of Scotland. 
 
 II. THE GREAT FOSSIL LONG-HORNED OX, THE URUS, 
 BOS PRIillGEMUS, BoJAStJS and Owex. 
 
 As in the description of the small short-horned ox, I shall first quote 
 my former paper, describing the skulls of the great fossil ox in the 
 Museum of the Society, and shall supplement it with additional examples 
 found in different parts of Scotland; adding also some remarks on their 
 Geological age and Distribution over the country. 
 
 (1.) Notes OS the Crania of the Ubus {Bos primigenius) in the Museum 
 OF the Society of A^tiquakies of Scotland. By John Alexander 
 Smith, M.D.' 
 
 Some jears ago, when gathering up various details in reference to the 
 ancient small short-horned cattle of this country, my attention was 
 
 * Read before tlie Royal Physical Society, 27th April 1S59, and published in their 
 Proceedings, vol. ii. p. 111.) 
 
6-±2 
 
 PllOCEEIiLXGS OF THE iOCIETV, JUNE 10, 1872. 
 
 also directed to the large cattle (Bus primigenius), and to the specimens 
 of crania in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries. I took various 
 measurements of these crania, and searched the early records of the 
 Society for such information in regard to the places where they were 
 found, and any other details that might he of interest; and as Mr 
 Turner has favoured us this session with some details of the specimens of 
 tills great os in the Anatomical Museum of the University, I have 
 thought it might interest the members if I produced my old notes on the 
 sahject. 
 
 There aie three specimens of these crania of the Bos primi'jenius in the 
 Museum of the .Society; they are included in the list of the Fossil 
 Skulls," &c., in the printed catalogue of the Museum; and the following 
 table gives some of their measurements ; — 
 
 LenL'th of skull from iupra-oecipital i 
 ridge to front of intermaxillary V 
 bones, . . ■ ) 
 
 Length from Jo. to upper part of nasal ) 
 bones, . ) 
 
 Length from middle of supra-occipital ) 
 ridge to upper part of orbit, ) 
 
 Length of orbit, .... 
 
 Breadth of do 
 
 Breadth of skitQ between roots of horn ) 
 cores, ... ) 
 
 Breadth across middle of orbits, 
 
 Horn-cores — circumference of at base, 
 Length, following outer cmvattire, 
 span of horn-cores from tip to tip, 
 across areatest width of horn-cores, 
 
 Length of alveolar sockets for teeth, . 
 
 Breadth across occipital condyles. 
 
 Ft. 
 
 In. 
 
 Intermnxi] 
 
 larv bone 
 
 , awantiug, 
 
 1 u 
 
 g. ) 
 
 1 1 
 
 1 1 
 
 2 4 
 
 1 Si 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 ii 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 lOJf 
 
 lU 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 11 
 
 1 4 
 
 1 
 
 3i 
 
 1 Oi 
 
 ■2 44 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 1 lOi^ 
 
 ■2 7i 
 
 •2 
 
 lOi 
 
 2 2A 
 
 3 n 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 2 7 
 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 The cranium Xo. 1 was the one first presented to the Museum of the 
 Society, by the Eev. Thomas Kobertson, minister of Selkirk, in 17S1. 
 The donation was made through a Mr Cairncross. and the following letter 
 accompanying it is preserved in the library of the Society: — 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 643 
 
 To Mr George Gairneross, Writer, Parliament Close, Edinburgh, 
 {with an ox's slcull and flints) ?■ 
 
 " Selkirk, July Uth, 1781. 
 
 " Dear Sir, — ^Among other curiosities dug out of a marie moss at 
 
 Whitmuirliall ia this parish, the skull and flints of an ox which I have 
 
 sent you attracted my attention. Tou, I know, are fond of anything that 
 
 tends to throw light upon the ancient state of this country, and therefore 
 
 I used the freedom to transmit this, not merely on account of its uncom- 
 mon size, hut as a proof of the large hreed of cattle with which this 
 country ahounded in the last century. I found five skulls, evidently 
 larger, but not so entire. I found also several small axes, resembling 
 those used by coppersmiths, but did not think it worth while to trouble 
 you with them. If anjiihing deserving the attention of your Society 
 occurs in this part of the country, I shall assuredly transmit it to you. 
 Mrs Eobertson joins me in best compliments to Mrs Cairncross and the 
 family — with, dear Sir, your humble servant, Thomas Eobertson." — 
 First Letter-book of Soc. Ant. Scot., p. 628. 
 
 The skull (consisting of the upper portion to the transverse nasal 
 suture, with both of the large horn-cores complete) was presented to the 
 Society at its meeting on the 17th July 1781 ; and the following reference 
 to it is recorded in the Minute-book, vol. i. p. 72 : — 
 
 " Mr George Cairncross presented, from the Rev. Thomas Robertson 
 of Selkirk, the bones of the head and flints of the horns of a large animal 
 dug out of a marle-pit near Selkirk, at a place called Whitmuirhall. The 
 circumference of each flint at the base is 14^ inches ; the length of that 
 on the right 27 inches, of the other 28 inches ; the distance between the 
 sockets of the eyes, Hi inches ; the breadth of the front, which is quite 
 flat, from the sides immediately over the sockets of the eyes, 12|^ inches ; 
 the depth from the top of the front to the top of the sockets of the eyes, 
 
 II inches ; and from the top of the front to the upper part of the inser- 
 tion of the cartilage of the nose, 13 inches. This appears to be the 
 animal described by Julius Csesar in his ' Commentaries,' book vi. c. 5, 
 by the name of Urus." 
 
 ^ Flint of a horn, — Scots for Horn-core. 
 
644 PEOCEEDKGS OF THE SOCIETY, JUNE 10, 1872. 
 
 The Secretary, Mr James Gumming, in a letter dated 25th July, 
 informs the Eev. !Mr Eobertson that the skull was presented to the 
 Society, and " in the opinion of some able naturalists among us, it is 
 beUeved to belong to that species of animal described by Julius Caesar 
 in his ' Commentaries,' lib. vi. c. 5, by the name of Urns." 
 
 The cranium No. 2 is tolerably entire (wanting only the nasal bones 
 and the intermaxillaries ; it measures now in total length, from the middle 
 of occiptal ridge to the extremity of the superior maxiUaries in front, 23J 
 inches, and the molar teeth referred to in the description seem to have 
 dropt out). Like all the others, the lower jaw is wanting. It was 
 found in a moss in the county of Galloway, and was presented to the 
 Museum of the Society by the Eev. David M'Eobert, in the year 1782, 
 and is referred to in the Minute-book, p. 205, July 12, 1782, as follows : — 
 
 " There was presented, from the Eev. David M'Eobert, the skeleton of 
 the head and flints of the horns of a large animal dug out of a moss in 
 the county of Galloway, similar in species to the one described in page 72, 
 paragr. ult., and nearly of the same dimensions ; the whole length of the 
 front measuring 2 feet 2 inches ; two of the denies nwlares remaining in 
 the upper jaw, each having one deep furrow in the middle, and measuring 
 on the under surface IJ inch the one way, and | of an inch the other." 
 2To letter relating to this skull seems to have been preserved, as, unfor- 
 tunately, a gap occurs in the letter-books at this period. 
 
 From the same reason we learn nothing of the last specimen presented, 
 !N^o. 3 (which is a nearly perfect skull, the nasal bones only being want- 
 ing), except what is stated in the Minute-book, July 9, 1782, p. 220 : — 
 
 '•There was presented from Thomas Scott of Hapsburn, Esq., the 
 skeleton of the head and flints of the horns of a large animal similar 
 in species to the one described in page 72, par. ult, and in page 205, 
 paragr. 4, and nearly of the same dimensions, but more entire than either; 
 the whole length of the front measuring 2 feet 4 inches, four of the 
 denies molares remaining in each side of the upper jaw, of the same size 
 and shape with those in the head described in page 205." 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OP SCOTLAND. 64.') 
 
 As far as I am aware, these are the earliest instances on record of this 
 large-sized ox being observed in Scotland, and it is interesting to find the 
 conclusions come to in regard to them by the naturalisfcs of this generation 
 forestalled by a small body of qniet students of the Antiquities and 
 Natural History of Scothind, meeting in Edinburgh so early as 1781; 
 identifying these large cattle as being the same as the Ueus, the gigantic 
 ox described as occurring on the continent of Europe, by Julius Cfesar, 
 in his "DeBeUoGaUico." 
 
 I need scarcely refer to the mistake made by the minister of Sel- 
 kirk in his letter accompanying the first donation, that they were the 
 remains of cattle of what he calls the "last century." The general 
 opinion has been that they were extirpated in Britain before the invasion 
 of the Eomans, as historians are altogether silent on the subject of 
 their existence. They had, however, apparently abounded, at least in 
 Scotland, probably at a somewhat more early period, which seems to bo 
 shown by another part of Mr Eobertson's letter, where he refers to 
 various small brass axes being found along with the numerous crania of 
 these large cattle. Unfortunately, he considered these axes as of very 
 little consequence, from some supposed similarity to the tools of copper- 
 smiths, though what work coppersmiths could have had to do in the wilds 
 of Selkirkshire, so as to have left their axes lying about in such numbers, 
 it is not very easy to understand. He apparently mistook the nature of 
 these weapons, which were in aU likelihood the ordinary bronze axe- 
 heads or celts, now so well known as having been the weapons and tools 
 of the early races who inhabited the British Isles, and which have been 
 found over the whole country. (I exhibit various specimens of these 
 bronze celts, palstaves, and socketed celts, which, I doubt not, correspond 
 to the coppersmith's axes of the letter referred to. The accompanying 
 woodcut shows various types of these axes.) 
 
 It has been stated, that bones of the Bos pritnigenius have been found 
 indented with the primitive stone javeUn of the aborigines of the north of 
 Europe ; here we apparently have them in close relation to the bronze 
 weapons of a possibly stiU later age, showing that these animals roamed 
 in our forests and marshes, and were hunted by the inhabitants of these 
 early times in at least our northern kingdom of Scotland. Professor 
 Owen says, " From the very recent character of the osseous substances in 
 
646 
 
 PEOCEEniXGS OF THE SOCIETY, JUXE 10, 1872. 
 
 the remains of these cattle, it may be concluded that the Bos primi genius 
 maintained its ground longest in Scotland before its final extinction. " And 
 Professor Nilsson of Lund believes that the Bus primigeniiis was found 
 in a wild or half-wild state in the forests of central Europe down even to 
 the beginning or middle of the sixteenth century. (See papers on •' The 
 Extinct and Existing Animals of Scandinavia," in "Annals and Magazine 
 of Natural History," 1840.) 
 
 Various Types cf Bronze Axe-head.«. 
 
 I have added to this paper some notes and measurements of the Frus 
 from Professor Nilsson's communication " On the Extinct and Existmg 
 Bovine Animals of Scandinavia,"' already referred to. 
 
 Professor Xilsson designates this large ox: — 
 
 Bos urns, Antiquorura, Bos jyi'/mir/enuis, Eecentioruni. 
 '•The forehead flat, the edge of the neck straight, the horns very larr;e and 
 long, near the roots directed outward and somewhat backward ; in the middle 
 tliey are bent forward, and towards the points turned a little upward." 
 
 1 Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. iv. London, LStO, p. S.ie. 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 647 
 
 Tu a foot-note it is added : — 
 
 " Precisely such a direction have the horns of our tame oxen, quite contrary 
 to the assertion of Bojaniis and many others, who, in the unlike direction of the 
 horns, choose to find a specific difference between the Urus and Taunis." 
 
 "Description. — This colossal species of ox, to judge from the skeleton, re- 
 sembles almost the tame ox in form and the proportions of its body; but in its 
 bulk it is far larger. To judge from the magnitude of its horn-cores, it had 
 much larger horns, even larger than the long-horned breed of cattle found in the 
 Campania of Rome. According to all the accounts, the colour of this ox was 
 black ; it had white horns, with long black points ; the hide was covered with 
 hair, like the tame ox, but it was shorter and smooth, with the exception of the 
 forehead, where it was long and curly." 
 
 Professor NUsson quotes Caesar's reference to the long-horned J7/'to- 
 or Buhalus, which Pliny tells us were synonymous, and distinguishes it 
 from the Bison with long hair on the back, neck, or under the chin 
 (Hist. Nat. viii. 5). Both of these animals, he says, "were carried to Eome, 
 and viewed by the people in the circus." NUsson also considers that 
 an engraving of the Bijs urus, given in the fourth book, p. 416, of Griffith's 
 admirable "Animal Kingdom" (an English elaboration of Cuvier's 
 " Eegne Animal "), copied from an old painting found at Augsburg, sup- 
 posed to have been executed in the beginning of the sixteenth century, 
 and marked Thur in gold letters, is really a representation of this Bos 
 primigenius. From this he probably takes part of his description. 
 
 I have quoted Professor Owen's concise description of the skull in the 
 subsequent note of the urus found at Athole, Perthshire. 
 
 Several skeletons and various skulls are preserved in the Museum of 
 the University of Lund, and Professor Nilsson gives details of the sizes 
 of the different bones, which may be useful for reference with those 
 found in our own country. The most perfect skeleton from which these 
 measurements are taken was, he thinks, a young specimen, and larger 
 detached tones and skulls have been found. Larger specimens have also 
 been got in Britain. The urus, he says, has thirteen pairs of ribs and 
 six lumbar vertebrae, in this way agreeing with the tame ox, and differ- 
 ing from the bison {Bison priscus, Owen), {Bos Bison, Linn.), which has 
 fourteen pairs of ribs, and not more than five lumbar vertebras. The 
 rein-deer agrees in this respect with the bison, and the red deer with 
 
 VOL. IX. PART II. 2 T 
 
648 
 
 PROCEEDIXGS OF THE SOCIETY, JTXE 10, 1872. 
 
 the uTus. The aurochs (or bison) is still preserved aUve by the Emperor 
 of Russia, in the forest of Bialoweska, Lithuania, now part of the Eussian 
 dominions. 
 
 General Dimensions of Cru-<. 
 
 " The whole length of the skeleton from the nape to the end of the rump 
 bones (ossa isdiii), . . 9 feet. 
 
 Length of the head from the occipital ridge to the anterior border of the 
 intermaxillary bones, . . . 2 feet 4 inches 4 lines. 
 
 The whole length of the animal is thus about . 11 feet 6 inches to 12 feet. 
 
 The height over the mane about . 6 feet to 6 feet 6 inches. 
 
 Diviensions of Skull. 
 
 The length from the horn-cores to the anterior edge of int«r- 
 
 maxiUaiy bones, 
 The length from the orbit's lower edge to ditto, 
 
 „ horn-base to orbits, 
 
 The length of horn-cores, concave side, 
 
 ,, horn-cores, convex side, 
 
 Under jaw, from the angle to the point, 
 The molar series in the upper jaw, . 
 Breadth of the forehead between the upper part of the crown 
 
 of the horn, 
 Breadth between the lower parts of ditto, 
 the orbit's upper part, 
 the orbit's lower part, 
 the intermaxillary bones, upper parts. 
 „ the apertures of the ear in a line, 
 
 Distance between the points of the horn-cores. 
 The circumference of the crown of the horn. 
 
 ■2 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 .-> 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 S 
 
 1) 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 J 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 .^ 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 i 
 
 Of Body. 
 
 The length of the spinal column to the last dorsal vertebra, 
 „ further in a right line to the upper Uiher ischii, 
 
 „ of the neck from atlas to and with the last neck 
 
 vertebra, . .... 
 
 Greatest length of one of the middle ribs without the cartilage, 
 
 Breadth of ditto, 
 
 11 
 
 4 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 5-6 
 
Kt, 
 
 In. 
 
 Lines. 
 
 
 iS 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■2 
 
 (1 
 
 
 ■2 
 
 4 
 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 t 
 
 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 ^OTKS OX THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 649 
 
 Of Extremitia^. 
 
 The length of shoulder-blade, 
 Breadth of its base, . 
 
 The length of os humeri between the articulations, 
 „ radius, 
 
 ubia, with olecranon, . 
 „ olecranon from the articulation, 
 
 metacarpus between the aTticulatious, 
 „ pelvis between the tub. ihi and ischii, 
 
 The breadth in a line between both tub. ilii, 
 The length of the os femoris between the articulations, 
 tibia, 
 „ metatarsus. 
 
 For comparison with the plate of the skulls of the short-horned ox, 
 T thought it would be interesting to give figures also of this large long- 
 horned ox, the Urus. Unfortunately, however, none of the skulls in the 
 Museum of the Society were sufficiently perfect for this ptirpose, and by 
 the permission of Professor Duns, D.D., I have taken a sketch of the 
 nearly perfect skuU of this large variety of Bus taiirus, as the late Professor 
 John Fleming, D.D., described it in his "History of British Animals " 
 Edinburgh, 1828, 8va This skull is now preserved in the Museum of the 
 Xew College here; it was found in Fifeshire, and an account of it is criven 
 in the subsequent Notes. I give a front view of the skull (taken from 
 above, and therefore the horns appear perhaps rather low). In the 
 skulls of the urus I have examined, the extremities of the horns are 
 turned forwards and rather upwards; few have them turned so much 
 outwards as represented by Professor Owen in his figure of the laro-e 
 skull from AthoU ; probably due to its greater age and size. A side 
 view drawn to the same scale. Also figures of the second and third 
 maxillary molar teeth, the two last molars of the left side of the upper 
 jaw. The teeth are figured of the natural size, and show at once their 
 great size, as compared with those of the small short-horned os (pre- 
 viously figured), and the close, indeed almost perfect correspondence of 
 their structure, like the former, with those of our ordinary domestic 
 cattle. 
 
650 
 
 rEOCEEDlXGS OF THE SOCIETY. JUXE 10. 1S72. 
 
 Cresar, iii liis " Commentaries," states that in the Hercyniau forest, 
 which then covered a great part of Europe, there hveJ an animal which 
 without doubt was the Eein deer, another great animal called aii Elk, 
 and a third- kind the Urus. As this is the earUest description of this 
 
 Skull of Bos jrrimiiicniiis found in Fifosliire (,27-1 inches in length). 
 
 great ox, although it has been alreadj- referred to, still, from the interest 
 attached to it, I quote here the whole passage; — 
 
 Lib. vi. cap. xxvii. — " Tertium est genus eorum qui Yri appellautur. 
 li sunt magnitudine paullo uifra elephantos, specie et colore et figure tauri. 
 Magna vis est eorum, et magna velocitas; neque homini, neque fera?, 
 quam conspexerint, parcunt; hos studiose foveis captos interficiunt. Hoc 
 se labore durant adolescentcs, atque hoc genere venationis exercent : ct qui 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 
 
 G51 
 
 pluriiuos c'x his iiit.ei'feccnint, relatis in puljlicuni cornibus, qute siut 
 testimoiiio, mao-nam feruut lamlcm. Sed assuescere ad homines, et man- 
 
 Side view of skull of BiK jn-lmigcnius, found in Fifeshiie, 
 
 sueaeii ue parvuli quidem excerti possiuit. Araplitudo conmum, et 
 figiira et species multum a nostrorum honm cornibus difteit. Ha'c 
 
 
 ■i'Jrm-'"-^-.'^' 
 
 ^■^^^ 
 
 Two last maxilla,; molar t.etli (second and tluvd) of left side of Uru., 
 T:oa prhiikiaihir, (natural size). 
 
 stud.ose conquisita ab labns argento eivcumcladnnt atqn. .n ^unplissimis 
 epulis pro poculis ntuntur.---7> Brlln Golliro. (Edit, Pans. 16,8.) 
 
652 
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JUNE 10, 1872. 
 
 (2.) XOTES OF THE OCCURRENCE OF REMAINS OF THE AncIENT LonG- 
 
 HoRNED Ox, THE Urus, Bus pHmigenius, is Different Districts 
 of Scotlaxd. 
 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 Edinburgh. University Anatomical Museiiw. — In this Muaeum there 
 are preserved portions of three skulls of the Bos primigenius ; nothing is 
 apparently recorded of their history, hut from their general appearance 
 and age, and their resemblance to those in the Museum of the Eoyal 
 College of Surgeons and the Society of Antiquaries, it may be assumed 
 they were found in marl-pits, and probably, like some of the others, iii 
 Selkirkshire, where they appear to have been found in eonsideiable 
 numbers at the close of the last centurj'. 
 
 I give the following table of their measurements. One skull, No. I., is 
 nearly perfect, with the exception of the front part of upper jaw (the 
 intermaxillary bone) of one side. The lower jaw is unfortunately wanting 
 in all the specimens. The skull No. II. consists of the upper part of 
 skull to transverse nasal suture, with the horn-cores remaining. Skull No. 
 III. has only a small part of the upper part of skull, with the horn-core 
 of the left side attached : — 
 
 Total length from centre of occipital crest to 
 
 front of intermaxillary bones, 
 Length from centre of occipital crest to nasal ) 
 
 suture, ... . ) 
 
 Length from do. to back of orbits, 
 Breadth of forehead between base of horn-cores, 
 Breadth between orbits, 
 Horn-cores : — 
 
 Length along outer curvature, 
 
 Circumference at base, 
 
 Span between tips, 
 Orbits : — 
 
 Length and breadth nearly equal. 
 
 Breadth across back of occipital condyles. 
 
 Length of maxillary molar series of alveo- ) 
 lar sockets, . . . . ( 
 
 (Last two molars remaining on left side in No. I.) 
 
 I 
 
 
 Ft. 
 
 In. 
 
 2 
 
 2| 
 
 
 
 12| 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 9^ 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 2* 
 
 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 nk 
 
 
 
 IL 
 
 in. 
 
 ]2| 
 
 12 
 9 
 
 2 3 
 1 3 
 
 2| 
 
 2 3i 
 1 2i 
 
XOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 
 
 653 
 
 Professor William Turner described these skulls, and others, in a paper 
 " On some Fossil Bovine Eemains found in Britain,''^ which was read 
 before the Eoyal Physical Society in February 1859, and published in 
 the Proceedings of the Society for 1859. He considers from the deep 
 brown colour of skull No. III., that it had been found in peat, and 
 that several bones of the skeleton of a similar colour probably belong to 
 this same animal. He compared these bones with corresponding bones 
 of a recent ox, and found that they exactly corresponded, only that the 
 ridges, spines, &o., of the fossil bones were on a much larger scale, on 
 account of their larger size. Mr Turner gives the following measure- 
 ments : — 
 
 
 Fossil. 
 
 Existing. 
 
 Right Feimir — 
 
 Indies. 
 
 Incites., 
 
 Extreme length. 
 
 20. 
 
 17 
 
 Circumference of middle of shaft, 
 
 7:: 
 
 5f 
 
 Diameter across condyles, posteriorly, 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 Left Scapula — 
 
 
 
 Extreme length. 
 
 19 
 
 15i 
 
 „ breadtli, 
 
 lOi 
 
 9| 
 
 Length of spine, 
 
 15 
 
 13 
 
 Largest diameter of glenoid fos.-.a, 
 Bight Humerus — 
 
 H 
 
 2J 
 
 
 
 Extreme length. 
 
 17^ 
 
 13 
 
 Circumference of middle of shaft. 
 
 9i 
 
 / i 
 
 Breadth across condyles, . 
 
 4i 
 
 H 
 
 Greatest diameter of articular surface of head. 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 Bib, probably 7th on right side — 
 
 
 
 Length, ... 
 
 28 
 
 ... 
 
 j Greatest breadth, . ... 
 
 2i 
 
 ... 
 
 ' Vertebra, 2d Cervical, or Axi-t — 
 
 
 
 Extreme height, ... 
 
 8 
 
 
 Extreme antero-posterior diameter. 
 
 / 
 
 
 Circumference of anterior articular surface. 
 
 14 
 
 ■■" 
 
 From the comparison of the bones with the recent ox, Mr Turner 
 estimates that the skeleton of this extinct animal must have stood nearly 
 6 feet in height at the shoulder. Professor Turner has kindly allowed 
 
 ^ See Proo. Eoy. Phys. Sec, vol. ii. p. 70, and Edin. New Philosophical Journal, 
 July 1859. 
 
654 
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETV', JUSE 10, 1S12. 
 
 me to examine the skiills in the Museum, and make these extracts from 
 his paper. 
 
 Edinburgh Veterinary College. — In the Museum of this Collie, two 
 skulls of the Bos primigenius are preserved ; unfortunately, nothing is 
 recorded of their history. One is nearly perfect, the tip of left horn-core 
 being hrokon. The other consists of upper part of skull, with honi- 
 cores. The following are some of their measurements : — 
 
 Length from centre of occipital ridge to front cf iiiter- 
 
 maxillaries (total length). 
 Do. to insertion of nasal bone . 
 Do. to upper edge of orbits, 
 Orbits : — 
 
 Length, 
 
 Breadtli, 
 Hom-Coreis : — 
 
 Length along outer curvatme. 
 
 Breadth across concavity of both horn-cores, 
 
 Breadth from tip to tip of hom-cores. 
 
 Circumference at base, . 
 Breadth of forehead between roots of horn-cores. 
 Length of alveolar sockets, .... 
 
 Depth of skull behind, from centre of occipital ridge to \ 
 
 floor at occipital foramen, 
 Breadth of occipital condyles behind, 
 
 
 No. L 
 
 No. II. 
 
 
 Ft. In. 
 
 Ft. In. 1 
 
 ■\ 
 
 2 3 
 Hi 
 
 
 
 11, \ 
 
 11 
 
 
 2A 
 2x\ 
 
 
 ■2 1 
 
 2 3 
 
 
 2 5 
 
 
 
 2 2 
 
 
 1 2 
 
 1 2i 
 
 
 9 
 6 
 
 9i 
 
 > 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 ^h, 
 
 5tV 
 
 From the general appearance of these skulls, they may be assumed to 
 have been found in marl-pits. 
 
 I am indebted to Dr James Murie for his kind assistance in their 
 examination. 
 
 Selkirkshire. 
 
 Royal College of Surgeons' Mii-f:e>im, Edinburgh. — There is a fine speci- 
 men of a neaily perfect skull of the Bos primigenius preserved in the 
 Museum of the Eoyal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh. It has much of 
 the general aspect of the crania preserved in the Museum of thie Sociely 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 655 
 
 of Antiquaries ; and as its label informs us, it is also from Selkirkshire, 
 and was probably obtained from that county about the same period as 
 the others, or a little later. 
 
 The skull is nearly perfect, except in the front of the maxillaries and 
 intermaxillaries, which are slightly broken. There are three molars on 
 each side, still in the alveolar sockets, but, like the rest of the skuUs, the 
 lower jaw has not been preserved. I annex some of its measurements for 
 comparison with the other specimens : — 
 
 Length from middle of occipital ridge to nasal suture, 
 
 Do. to back part of orbits, 
 Breadth of forehead between base of horn-core.-;;, 
 Breadth of back part of occipital condyles, 
 Horn-cores : — 
 
 Length along outer curvature, ... 
 
 Length from centre of occipital ridge to point of right horn-core. 
 
 Circumference at base, . . . . 
 
 Approximate span of horn- cores, left being bn iken toward point, 
 Orbits:— 
 
 Length and breadth nearly equal, 
 Do. of nasal bones, . 
 
 Length of series of maxillary alveolar sockett, 
 
 I have to thank Dr J. BeU Pettigrew, the curator of the ]\Iuseum, for 
 assisting me in "taking these measurements. 
 
 Selkirk. — Whitmuirhall. — The first skull of urus presented to the 
 Museum by Eev. Thomas Eobertson in 1781. It is already described in 
 my paper, and was found in a marl-moss at Whitmuirhall, near Selkirk. 
 
 Selkirk. — In the " Statistical Account of Scotland " of Sir John Sinclair, 
 Bart., Edinburgh, 1792, vol. ii. p. 434, the Eev. Thomas Eobertson 
 contributes the account of the Parish of Selkirk. He shows the increased 
 knowledge of these ancient cattle, he had derived from his correspondence 
 with the Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries in 1781, already 
 described in my paper, and states that " some skulls of the urus, and 
 a Eoman spear with which these animals were destroyed, were found 
 
 Feet. 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 Inch( s. 
 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 5| 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 If 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2| 
 6* 
 
656 PKOCEEDIXGS OF THE SOCIETY, JUXE 10, 1872. 
 
 latel}' iu a moss near to Selkirk, and presented to the Society of Anti- 
 quaries." The following note is added ; — 
 
 " For the description of this animal, and the lionorary rewards conferred 
 on those who distinguished themselves in destroying them, see Caesar's 
 ' Commentaries,' lib. vi. chap. 5." 
 
 Alexander JefiErey, Esq., Jedburgh, in his valuable "History and 
 Antiquities of Eoxburghshire," Edinburgh, 1864 (4 vols. 8vo), refers in 
 vol. i. p. 244, to this occurrence of the urus in Selkirkshire, and adds a 
 note that the spear, he believes, was found sticking in the skull. He 
 recollects of reading this statement somewhere, but could not at the time 
 remember where ; I fear it requires confirmation. 
 
 I am also indebted to Mr Jeffrey for some references to the occurrence 
 of the urus mentioned in the "Old Statistical Account of Scotland." 
 
 In the article Selkirkshire, of " Edinburgh Encyclopaedia," 1830, it is 
 stated that skulls of the urus have been found along with horns of red- 
 deer, and palmated horns, I believe of Elk, Cenms dices} 
 
 Yarrmc. — In the " New Statistical Account of Scotland," it is stated 
 that skulls of the urus, and of a palmated deer,i have been found in 
 the marl-mosses. 
 
 Eoxburghshire. 
 
 Jedburgh. — There is preserved in the collection at Abbotsford a fine 
 large skull of the Bos primigenius. It was found many years ago in a 
 moss in the forest near Jedburgh, M. J. C. Clabeaux informs me, and 
 favours me with the following measurements : — 
 
 Feet. Inches. 
 Length of skuU from centre of occipital ridge to front of 
 
 snout, . . . 2 3 
 
 Horn-cores, length of outer curvatme, 2 11 
 
 Horn-cores, length across from tip to tip, . . 2 Oj 
 
 Mr A. Jeifrey, of Jedburgh, informs me a good specimen of the skull 
 of the urus, found in the neighbourhood, is preserved in the museum 
 there. 
 
 ^ See on Elk in Scotland, Proc. Soc. Antiq., vol. ix. p. 332. 
 
XOTES OX THE AXCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTEAXD. 6:1 1 
 
 Ale Water. — ]\Iany years ago, wlien driving witli a relative down the 
 vallej' of the river Ale, not far from the town of Lilliesleaf, I was rather 
 startled by seeing two large, and to all appearance nearly perfect, skulls 
 of the Bos primigenius, impaled one on each of the wooden posts of an 
 old field-gate. Our Border blood was sorely stirred within us " to lift the 
 cattle" skulls at once, and carry them off in our dog-cart ; neglected, how- 
 ever, as they certainly appeared to be, we knew they were not ours, and 
 their great size was a decided objection to our little plan, so we rather 
 unwillingly drove oif, leaving them to fall to pieces with exposure to the 
 weather, and, as it seemed to \is, be totally lost. However, it gave me 
 an additional locality for this great ox, being sure the skulls must have 
 been got from some peat-bog or marl-pit in the immediate neighbourhood 
 of the field-gate on which they had probably been very recently impaled. 
 
 Linton Locli.- — My friend, Mr James Elliot, Gallalaw, Kelso, informed 
 me that Mr George Purves, the tenant of Burnfoot, drained part of Lin- 
 ton Loch many years ago; the bones of a large ox, described as the 
 Bos primigenius, were got in the marl about the year 1826, and tlie 
 animal to which they belonged was estimated to have stood about 6^ feet 
 in height to the top of the shoulder. Mr Purves has still in his posses- 
 sion the skull and horns of a large red deer which were got there. He 
 informed him that great numbers of deer horns were found ; "in some parts 
 they dug through a perfect mass of horns.'' They also " came on a layer 
 of hazel nuts, but nearly everything crumbled down on exposure to the 
 air.'' Mr Purves also found below the peat, and on the surface of the 
 marl, a very perfect skull of the Beaver, Castor fiber, now preserved in 
 the iluseum of the Tweedside Physical and Antiquarian Society at Kelso. 
 It was described by Dr Charles Wilson in an interesting memoir, 
 entitled "Ifotes on the Prior Existence of the Castor fiber in Scot- 
 land."! 
 
 Hapsbum. — A skull of the urus in the Museum of the Society, described 
 in my paper, was presented in 1872 by Mr Thomas Scott of Hapsburn, 
 Enxburghshire. 
 
 ^ See Edinburgli Xew Philosophical Journal, uew series, July 1S58, 
 
658 proceedings of the society, june 10, 1s72. 
 
 Berwickshire. 
 Merfoun — Wliitrig Bog. — In this bog, in whieh the skull of the Elk, 
 Ceniis alces,^ was discovered in 1871; besides skulls, <Src., remains of the 
 red-deer ; skulls also of the great urus, Bos primigenius, have been found. 
 Part of a skull of the latter, with large horn-cores, was discovered a few 
 years ago. This consisted of a portion of the frontal bone with horn-cores, 
 which measured each in length, along the outer curvature, 28J inches, 
 and 12^ inches in circumference at its base. The cord of the arc of the 
 inner curve of the horn from its base to its tip, was 5 inches in greatest 
 depth. The horn was got by Dr Henderson when living at Melrose, and 
 was presented by him to the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow. I am indebted 
 to Mr John Young of the Museum for the note of its dimensions, and he 
 informs rae traces of the peat stiU remain in the cavities of the skull, 
 showing the bed in which it was discovered. 
 
 Dunne — Smiiton Mill — Mr George Logan, W.S., exliibited to the Eoyal 
 Physical Society, in January 1866, a bone of this great ox, found in the 
 course of operations for deepening the river Leet, near Swinton MUl. It 
 was found in the alluvium a little below the surface. Professor Turner, 
 who examined the bone, stated that it was a right humerus of a young 
 animal. 
 
 Dumfriesshire. 
 
 Shaw. — Sir William Jardine, Bart., informs me that, in a marl-pit on 
 the property of George Graham of Shaw, Esq., there were found at the 
 bottom of the moss, and lying on the marl, the remains of various animals, 
 red-deer, roe-deer, Bos primigenius rare, the skull and rib of a black bear 
 Ursus arctos, and horn of rein-deer.^ 
 
 KlRKCnDBRIUHTSHIRE. 
 
 William Carruthers, Esq., of the British Museum, informs me that in 
 addition to the skuU of the Bos primigenius from Athol, there is also in 
 the Museum a specimen from a turbary in Kirkcudbrightshire, presented 
 by Lord Selkiik in 1859. A large number of the bones of the skeleton 
 
 ' Elk ill Scotland, Proc. Soc. Aiitiq., vol. ix. p. 332. 
 ^ Reindeer in Scotland, Proc. vol. viii. 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 659 
 
 as well as the skull are preserved. The length of the face from the 
 occipital ridge to the end of the intermaxillary bones is 2 feet 3| inches. 
 
 Galluwaij. — A skull in the Museiim of the Society, already described 
 in my paper, was found in a moss in the district of Galloway, and was 
 presented by the Eev, David M'Eobert in 1782. 
 
 Ayrshire. 
 
 Maybole. — In the account of this parish in the " New Statistical Ac- 
 count of Scotland," it is recorded by the Eev. Mr Gray that various 
 animal remains have been found in marl-pits, including skulls of the Irish 
 Elk, Megaceros Hibernicus,^ and of " a large Bos taurus " (the Bos primi- 
 genius, I have no doubt). The latter measured 10 inches between the 
 horns, and 1 3|^ inches in circumference at the base of the horn. 
 
 Ebnpeewshire. 
 
 Grofthead. — A portion of the skull, with a horn-core of the Bos primi- 
 genius, was found in a bed of clay in the valley of the Cowdenburn, near 
 Grofthead, and was described by Mr James Geikie, H.M. Geological 
 Survey, in the "Geological Magazine," London, for 1868. Mr Geilde 
 considered the bed as intercalated with the true boulder clay of the dis- 
 trict. EemaLas of the Megaceros HibeiTiiciis i were found in the same 
 locality in 1869, and were described by Mr John Young of the Hunterian 
 Museum, Glasgow ; they were on the same horizon as the remains of the 
 Bos primigenius, at about 20 feet from the old surface of the ground. 
 Bones of a small-sized horse, Equibs caballus, were found in a lower series 
 of the same deposits. Mr Young considered the beds in which these 
 remains were found as comparatively recent lacustrine deposits. 
 
 Lanarkshiee. 
 
 Lanark. — Mr William Lockhart, in his account of the parish of 
 Lanark in " The Statistical Account of Scotland," vol. xv., Edinburgh 
 1795, states : In September 1785, whUe digging the open part of an 
 aqueduct for the first mill at the village of E"ew Lanark, " there was found 
 
 ' See Notice of Irish Elk in Scotland, Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., vol. ix. p. 346. 
 
660 PROECEDIXGS OF THE SOCIETY, JUNE 10, 1872. 
 
 the skeleton of the Bison Sfoticus, or urus, described by Csesar, lib. vi., 
 which has been extinct in Scotland for above 300 years. The cores or 
 flints of the horns are still preserved, one in the College of Glasgow, and 
 another in my possession ; the last, though not entire, is 2 feet in length, 
 and next the head measures above 15 inches in circumference." — (P. 34.) 
 
 Clyde. — When operations were carried on in 1833 in the alluvium of 
 the river Clyde for improving the navigation, a skull of the large ox, Bos 
 primigenius, and fragments of horns of the rein-deer,^ were found in beds 
 of fine laminated sand on the north bank of the Clyde, below the junc- 
 tion of the river Kelvin. These bones are now preserved in the ^Museum 
 of the Andersonian University. Glasgow. 
 
 Glasgow. — In a paper by Mr James Bennie, '• On the Occurrence of 
 Bos longifronx and Bos primigeniu-s in the Ancient Drift of the Clyde," 
 published in vol. ii., 1SG7, of the "Transactions of the Geological Society 
 of Glasgow," Mr Bennie states that a large horn, recognised by Dr Scoular 
 as of the Bus primigenius, was found in an excavation in Greendyke 
 Street, Glasgow, which was made for a sewer, and extended for a con- 
 siderable distance. Its depth was about 10 feet, and the soil cut through 
 consisted partly of forced earth, vegetable mould, and river silts, the silts 
 being 7 feet deep where the horn was found. The horn, which Mr 
 Bennie has allowed me to examine, belongs to the right side of skuU, and 
 has part of the frontal bone attached to it. It measures 8f inches in 
 circumference at its base, and 10 inches in length to its extremity, which 
 is broken. The horn appears to be considerably weathered and worn, as 
 if by roUing in the bed of a river. 
 
 FiFESHIRE. 
 
 yHuburgh.—VM&ssor: John Fleming, D.D., in his '• HiStory of British 
 Animals," Edinburgh, 1828, refers to a large skull of a Bos taiirus, of 
 which he gives the following details : — "It measures 27 J inches in length, 
 9 inches between the horns, and lU inches across at the orbits." It is 
 now preserved in the :Museum of the Xew College, Edinburgh, and a 
 label fixed on it, in Professor Fleming's handwriting, tells us that 
 ' See Eeiu-deer in Scotland, Proe. Soc. Antiq. Soot., vol. viii. p. -207 
 
IsOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 661 
 
 it was found ia a marl-pit at ISTewburgli. The skull is nearly perfect, 
 with the exception of part of the intermaxillary of the right side, 
 and the lower jaw, which is wanting. Several molar teeth remain 
 in the alveolar sockets, and as they are well ground down, they show 
 very distinctly the various folds of the enamel of the teeth, which 
 exactly correspond in character, but of a much larger size, with that of 
 the domestic ox. (See figures of this skuU and its molar teeth previously 
 given). 
 
 The following are some of the measurements of this skull : — 
 
 In, Lin. 
 
 Length of the skull from the supra-occipital ridge to front edge 
 
 of intermaxillary bone. 
 Length from supra-oocipitai ridge to nasal bones, 
 Do. from centre of do. to upper edge of orbit?, 
 Do. of nasal bones, . 
 Do. of orbits, 
 Breadth of orbits, 
 Length from firont of orbit to end of maxillary bone, . 
 
 Do. do. to front edge of intermaxillary bone. 
 
 Breadth of forehead between roots of horn-cores. 
 Do. across narrowest part about midway between roots of horn- 
 cores and orbits, 
 Do. of skuU across middle of orbits, 
 Do. across front of intermaxillary bones, 
 Horn-cores, circumference of base. 
 
 Do. length following outer curvature, 
 Do. span across, from tip to tip, 
 Length of alveolar sockets and molar teeth of upper jaw, 
 Do. of skull from supra-occipital ridge to upper edge of for- 
 amen magnum, . . . . 
 Do. of skull from supra-occipital ridge to the base of the skull, 
 Breadth of occipital condyles posteriorly. 
 Length of base of skuU from front of foramen magnum to front 
 
 edge of intermaxillary bones, . . . 22 6 
 
 Peethshiee. 
 Athol. — Professor Eichard Owen, in his valuable and beautiful work 
 " A History of British Fossil ^Mammals and Birds," Van Tooret, London 
 
 27 
 
 9 
 
 13 
 
 3 
 
 11 
 
 6 
 
 iO 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 11 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 24 
 
 6 
 
 28 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 S 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
662 PHOCEEDIXGS OF THE SOCIETY, JUNE 10, 1872. 
 
 1846, figures and describes a large skull of the Bos primigerdus got from 
 AthoL His description is at once so complete and concise that I shall 
 quote it in fuU : — 
 
 " The characters of the Bos primigenius, as contrasted with the Bison priseus, 
 may be advantageously studied in the magnificent specimen of an entire skull 
 from near Athol, Perthshire, now in the British Museum. The concave fore- 
 head, with its slight median longitudinal ridge ; the origin of the horns at the 
 extremities of the sharp ridge which divides the frontal from the occipital regions ; 
 the acute angle at which these two sur&ces of the cranium meet to form the 
 above ridge, — all identify this specimen with the Bos primigenius described by 
 Cuvier, Bojanus, and Fremery. The cores of the horns bend at first slightly 
 backward and upward, then downward and forward, and, finally, inward and 
 upward, describing a gracefiil double curvature ; they are tubercalate at the base, 
 moderately impressed by longitudinal grooves, and irregularly perforated. The 
 skull is one yard in length, and the span of the horn-cores is 3 feet 6 inches ; 
 but other British specimens of the Bos primigenius have shown superior dimen- 
 sions of the bony supports of the horns. The breadth of the forehead between 
 the horns is lOj inches ; from the middle of the occipital ridge to the back part 
 of the orbit it measures 13 inches; the length of the series of upper molar teeth 
 is 6| inches; the breadth of the occipital condyles is 6 inches." — (P. 502.) 
 
 In this description Professor Owen states that the skull is one yard in 
 length; this measurement, however, is taken from the occipital condyles, 
 over the occipital ridge, to the front edge of the intermaxillary bones. 
 The length of the face of the specimen, from the centre of the occipital 
 ridge to the &ont edge of the intermaxillary bones, is 2 feet 7 inches ; 
 this latter measurement is given as the length of the skuU, in all the other 
 instances I have described. The length of the left horn-core (the tip of 
 the right is broken off) is 2 feet 4J inches along its outer curvature, 
 and the core measures 14 inches in circumference at its base. 
 
 Moulin. — In " The Statistical Account of Scotland," voL v., Edinburgh, 
 1793, the Rev. Alexander Stewart, in his account of this parish, states — _ 
 " The skull of a large-horned animal was found some years ago in a marl 
 pit, half a mile &om Moulin, and is preserved at that house. The head 
 is shaped like that of an ox; the horns are lost, but the pith is entire; 
 the length of the skuU, from the edge of the bone between the horns to 
 the extremity of the upper jaw, is 26^ inches; the greatest circumference 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 663 
 
 of the pith (or horn-core), 13 inches; the diameter of the eye-socket, 3 J 
 inches; and the distance between the eyes, 10,', inches. It is supposed to 
 have belonged to one of those animals which Caesar calls TJri, and which 
 were found in the Hercynian forest in Germany, 'Bell. Gall.,' lib. vi. 
 cap. 26."— (P. 70.) 
 
 Muiliil. — The Eev. John Scott, in his account of this parish, published 
 in "The Statistical Account of Scotland," vol. viii., Edinburgh, 1793, states 
 that — " At this time there are no wild deer, but as the horns of both the 
 elk and forest deer of a very large size have of late been found in marl 
 pits, on both sides of the parish, and as the head and horns of the urus 
 (Bos ferus of Liunseus) or mountain buU were lately dug up at the side 
 of a small lake near Drummond Castle, it plainly shows that forest deer, 
 and the other animals now so little known, once frequented this part of 
 the country." — (P. 487.) 
 
 Drummond Castle. — A fine specimen of a skuU of the Bos prlmigenius, 
 got in a marl-pit in the neighbourhood several years ago, is preserved at 
 Drummond Castle. Other skulls of the same kind were found at the 
 time, and were given away as presents. 
 
 Aberdeenshieb. 
 BeJheJvk Moss. — Professor John Struthers, il.D., &c., of Aberdeen 
 University, has kindly furnished me with the annexed measurements of 
 a skuU and bones of the Bos primigenius found in Belhelvie peat moss, 
 a fe-w miles north of Aberdeen, and now preserved m. the Museum of the 
 University. 
 
 (A.) Upper part of Skull (frontal and occipital regions), with 
 Horn-cores complete. 
 
 1. Horn-cores. Length along outer curvature, 
 
 2_ ^ Girth at their roots (at the raised edge), 
 
 3 ^ Do. at the middle, 
 
 4 ., Tip to tip, . • • ■ 
 g' Width between greatest convexity of horns. 
 
 Do. between greatest concavity of horns 
 
 VOL. JX. PART n. 
 
 Inches. 
 31 
 14 
 lOi 
 23^ 
 36i 
 30* 
 
1* 
 
 664 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JUNE 10, \>iT2. 
 
 laclie: 
 
 7. Direction of horns. The occipital surface of the skull being placed 
 
 vertical, the horns rise 7J inches to the tip, the first ^ a little 
 convex, the last f concave upwards. 
 
 8. Breadth across forehead between roots of horn-cores^ 
 
 (a) To raised edge of hom-core, . . . . 12f 
 
 (b) To beginning of rough surface of do., . . 9^ 
 
 9. Breadth across crest of skuU — 
 
 (a) To raised edge of hom-core, . . .11^ 
 
 (6) To beginning of rough surface of do., . . 9 J 
 
 10. Length from crest to occipital foramen, . . . 7f- 
 
 1 1. Occipital foramen — 
 
 (a) Vertically, at surface, . . . . 2^ 
 
 (b) Transversely, at same level as last, 2^ 
 
 (c) „ at level of edge of condyle, . > 
 „ at ridge of condyle, . . ( 
 
 12. Between extreme outer edges of condyles, . . . 5J 
 
 13. Breadth of condyle along its ridge, . . . .2^ 
 
 14. Thickness of top of head 4 inches below crest, between frontal and 
 
 occipital surfaces, .... . 3j 
 
 (B.) Humerus. (About lower third.) 
 
 15. Extreme breadth at lower end, ... . 4f 
 
 16. Breadth between edges of articular surface, 4^ 
 
 17. Girth at 5 inches above lower end, .... 9 
 
 (0 ) Fore-arm. (Lower ^ or :J ) Radius and Ulna are ankylosed. 
 
 18. Extreme breadth at lower end, ..... 4f 
 
 1 9. Breadth of entire carpal articular surface, . . 3 J 
 
 20. Girth 5 inches above lower end, ... .10 
 
 21. Girths of radius and ulna separately, where an interosseous vacuity 
 
 allows a cord to pass — 
 
 (a) Radius, 3f inches above lower end, . . . 9| 
 
 (6) Ulna, 3 inches above its lower end, . 4 
 
 (D.) Colour of the Bones. 
 
 All the portions present a uniform clay-brown colour. Forehead mostly of a 
 darker colour, but no streaks or spots. 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 665 
 
 SUTHERLANDSHIRE. 
 
 Kintradwell.—ln February 1864 the Eev. J. M. Joass of Golspie, 
 then of Eddertoun, made some excavations in a ruined building, a broch 
 at Kintradwell, near the sea-shore, and found the remains of various 
 animals, as the pig and red-deer, 'with the frontal bone and horn-core, and 
 other bones of a large animal of the ox tribe. 
 
 Caithness-shire. 
 
 Keiss. — Among the bones of animals brought from Keiss, in the 
 Museum of the Society, there is the upper part of the skull of a large 
 ox, with the frontal bone, and a horn-core of the left side, which is 
 broken. The horn-core measures 10 inches in circumference at its base, 
 and 12 inches in length along its outer curvature to its fractured ex- 
 tremity, which is now imperfect. Its large size corresponds more to that 
 of the Bos primigenius than to any other ox. It was discovered many 
 years ago by Mr Joseph Anderson in an ancient mound on the sea 
 coast at Keiss. The horn is much weather-worn, and perhaps belonged 
 to a young animal. 
 
 Breckigo. — The frontal portion of a skull, with large horn-cores attached, 
 of the Bos primigenius, found in the marl of the Loch of Breckigo, along 
 with various antlers of red-deer ; was presented to the Museum by Bentley 
 Innes, Esq. of Thrumster, in June 1870. 
 
 Feet. Inches. 
 
 The skuU measures across the forehead, between the roots of 
 
 the horn-cores, . . . . . .09 
 
 Length from occipital ridge to lower border of foramen magnum, 
 Breadth across back of occipital condyles, 
 
 The horn-cores are nearly perfect : — 
 
 The right horn-core measures along its outer curvature. 
 Circumference at base, . ... 
 
 Left : length along its outer curvature, 
 Circumference at base, ... 
 
 Length between points of horn-cores, . 
 Greatest width across inside curve of horn-cores, 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 5| 
 
 1 
 
 U 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
666 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JUNE 10, lti72. 
 
 Boioer. — I am indebted to Mr Joseph Anderson for tlie two following 
 notices of the occurrence of the Bos primigenius in this county, which 
 were published at the time in the " John o' Groat Journal." They are 
 remarkable from the fact of the horns of two of these large cattle 
 being in each instance apparently locked together, as if they had been 
 fighting in the bog, and each had been mutually exhausted, and thus 
 destroyed by his opponent. 
 
 The first was discovered on Monday, 12th August 1839, by Mr John 
 Bremner, Toflf Eemp, in the parish of Bower, when digging for marl in 
 a moss on the estate of Thura. He discovered bones of some animals of 
 the ox species, but of a great size (the Bos primigenius). They were up- 
 wards of 3 feet under ground, and in a high state of preservation. Two 
 heads were locked together by the horns, as if the animals had killed 
 one another. One of the heads is preserved, and various other bones ; 
 they were measured in the presence of several individuals. The horn- 
 cores of the horns only remain, forming a graceful curve of 5 feet 10 
 inches from tip to tip (along the curvature of the horns) ; breadth of skuU 
 across eyes (and horn-cores ?), 1 foot 6 inches ; one of the ribs measured 
 3^ inches at the broadest part, and 3 feet 1 inch in length. Largest 
 joint of leg-bone (femur?) measures 9 inches in circumference, but the 
 bone itself is comparatively short. Unfortunately, from the non-scientific 
 character of the measurer, it is not quite certain to what he refers. 
 
 The second instance was discovered in the same parish of Bower, at 
 Clayock, near the loch of Scarmclett, by Alexander Eoss, when digging 
 a drain in the beginning of October IS-tO. Two heads were found together 
 3 feet under ground, as if the animals had fought and died together. The 
 horns measured 5 feet from tip to tip (along curvature), and 11 inches in 
 circumference. 
 
 Okknet. 
 Mainland, Sanchrick, SJiXira. — Samuel Laing, Esq., in his paper on 
 the " Age of the Brochs,'' already referred to,^ compares the collection 
 of animal remains, &c., found by Mr William "Watt at SkaUl, with those 
 found by himself in Caithness. He states that the fauna appeared to be 
 the same with that of the burgs or brochs, but with one remarkable 
 1 Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot. vol. viii. 1867. 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 607 
 
 exception, viz., " that in addition to the small straight horns of Bu.-i 
 longifrons, there were several large ox horns, which from their size and 
 curvature must have been those of Bos primi genius, of which specimens 
 have heen found in the peat mosses, though, as far as I am aware, not 
 before in connection with any ancient dwellings in Orkney or Caithness. 
 One horn, now exhibited, was nearly 12 inches in circumference at the 
 base, and had been upwards of 2 feet long." — (P. 76.) The remains of 
 the small ox include a horn-core of right side partially broken ; it 
 measures 8 inches long, and nearly 7 inches in circumference at the base. 
 George Petrie, Esq., Corr. Mem. S.A. Scot., in a paper also read to the 
 Society, April 1867,^ gives a detailed account of the curious under- 
 ground remains of buildings found at Skara, Baj* of SkaiU, worked out 
 by Mr T\"illiam TVatt. After describing the ancient types of many of the 
 bone and stone implements found, he states, that these remains are of very 
 considerable antiquitj' may be inferred as well from the ancient type of 
 the implements, as "also from the fact, that the bones and horns of 
 animals long since extinct in Orkney, such as the deer, and it is believed 
 the Bos pnmi genius, were thickly strewed throughout the debris of the 
 bunding."— (P. 210.) 
 
 The Age or Geological Eakge of the Large Long-Horned Ox, the 
 Urus (Bos primigemns, Owen), in Britain, and especially in 
 Scotland. 
 
 Julius Csesar described the urus as being then found with the elk and 
 rein-deer in the Hercynian forest. Pliny states that the northern peoples 
 drank out of urus horns, which were so large as to contain an urna. 
 Professor Nilsson considers this statement probably an exaggeration. 
 
 Professor Nilsson believes that the urus came in, long after the Scandi- 
 navian boulder period, at a much later time than that during which the 
 same species lived in England ; he therefore supposes it had never attained 
 to the same size in Scandinavia as in England. It lived in Scandinavia 
 contemporaneously with the rein-deer and elk (their fossil rem.ains being 
 not unfrequently found together in our old turf-bogs). Its remains are 
 also found abundantly in the Danish kitchen middens. 
 1 Proo. Soc. Autiq. Scot. voL viii. 
 
668 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JUNE 10, 1872. 
 
 In the Museum of the University of Lund, there is a skeleton of a 
 urns which was discoTered in a peat bog in 1840, under Professor ^v^Ulson's 
 own inspection, near to Ounaip, in the district of Wemmenshog, in 
 the south of Scania. It has, near the edge of the spinous process of 
 the fiist lumliar vertebra, an opening surrounded with callus, which passes 
 out on the back, and is continued through the projection of the next 
 bone.^ The Professor supposes this wound had been caused by the stroke 
 of a javelin, the animal being struck from the front, and that the head 
 of the spear had afterwards suppurated out. Various celebrated ana- 
 tomists and physiologists also agree with Professor KOlson in this 
 explanation of the cause of the injury. He therefore considers this 
 instance proves that this animal had lived in Scania after the country 
 was inhabited by man during the Stone period, and also during some part 
 of the Bronze age, as a war-trumpet of bronze described and figured by 
 him is, he considei-s, evidently copied from a horn of the ttre-ox.^ 
 
 In Professor Eiitimeyer's catalogue of the " Animal Eemains of the 
 Lake Dwellings of Switzerland," he states that the Bos primigeniiis has 
 been foimd at Eobenhausen, Mooseedorf, "Wanwyl, and Concise, and what 
 he has designated the Bos taunts primigetnus at Eobenhausen, Moosee- 
 dorf, JleUen, Concise, and Bienne. Xo skulls of the Bos primigenius 
 have, however, as yet been discovered on the older sites, so as to put be- 
 yond a doubt the supposed fact of its presence ; and in the later ones the 
 horn- cores and bones, which are believed to represent it, are also stated 
 to be considerably less in size than the ancient urns or Bos primigenius. 
 
 In England the Bos primigenius is found in the Fen and Turbary 
 deposits of the alluvium, and Professor Owen includes it in the list of 
 animals found in the caves and the drift and fresh- water deposits of the 
 newer Pliocene formation, associated with the remains of recent and also 
 the extinct mammalia, as the elephant, rhinoceros, &c. The presence of 
 its remains in the Cromer forest-bed in Xorfolk, associated with many of 
 the extinct mammalia, takes it back to the times before our glacial epoch, 
 and therefore to a remote antiquity. Following the order given by Sir 
 Charles Lyell, Bart., from the present to the past, it lived through the 
 
 ^For notice and figures, see "The Primitive Inhabitants of Scandinavia," by 
 Sven NiUson, translated by Sir J. Lubhock, London, 1869, p. 369. 
 " Bronze Age, p. 93, by Professor NUlson. 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 6(39 
 
 Eecent and Post-Pliocene divisions of Ms Post-Tertiary Period. StUl further 
 back it may be traced into the Newer-Pliocene, or first division of his 
 Pliocene Period, beneath the glacial drifts, as ia the pre-glacial forest-bed 
 of Cromer ; beyond which its remains have not as yet been discovered. 
 
 In England very few instances have been recorded of the association 
 of the bones of the urus with the remains of man. One is referred to 
 by Professor Owen in his '■' British Fossil Mammals," published by Mr 
 Woods, as the discovery of the skull and horns of the great urus in a 
 tumulus on the Wiltshire Downs. In the " Account of the Blackmore 
 Museum at Salisbury, 1868," various important papers were published 
 on different archaeological subjects read at the opening meeting, was one 
 by Mr Boyd Dawkins " On the Pre-Historic Mammalia found associated 
 with Man in Great Britain." This discovery of the skull of a urus in a 
 tumulus in Wiltshire is there referred to. He says : — " It is remarkable, 
 as being the only authenticated instance of the occurrence of the animal 
 with the remains of man in pre-historic times in Britain." Mr Cunning- 
 ton stated this was an error, for which he was partly responsible from 
 a statement he had made in the "Wiltshire Magazine.'' He believed 
 now, that the remains of the urus were not found in a barrow at CherhUl, 
 but in a bed of local drift close to the rivulet which flows through the 
 vaUey round the foot of Oldbury HOI. Thinking there might still be 
 some doubt on the matter, I wrote to Dr John Thurnam,i Devizes, who I 
 was sure would be cognisant of all the facts of the case, and received 
 from him the following reply : — "There is no really reliable record of 
 the discovery of part of the skull and horns of Bos primi genius at 
 Cherhill near Calne. The first published notice is in Henry Woods' 
 'Description of Fossil Skull of Ox at Melksham,' 4to, 1858, with plate. 
 The Cherhill specimen is named at p. 26. It is there said to be from 
 a tumulus, and this account is repeated in the brief reference by Mr 
 Cunnington in the ' Wilts Magazine,' vol. iv. p. 139, to which you refer. 
 The original report was by a Mr S. Money, an undergraduate (]) at the 
 time, and probably is to a great extent founded on hearsay. From what 
 has since been heard, Sir Cunnington now believes that the horns were 
 
 It is with much sorrow I have to record the lamented death of this accomplished 
 medical man and antiquary, before these sheets were printed off. John Thurnam, 
 M.D., F.S.A., died suddenly at Devices on the 24th September 1873. 
 
670 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JUNE 10, 1872. 
 
 not from a barrow at all, but from the bed of a rivulet. This is eon- 
 firmed by the fact that some pottery said to be found with the horns, 
 seems to be water rolled, but whether the two are contemporary is very 
 doubtful. The whole are now in the Devizes !Museum (Wilts Arch. Soc.) 
 ilr Cunnington gives a good woodcut of the horns." 
 
 In his memoir " On Ancient British Barrows," Archseologia, vol. xlii. 
 (1869), Dr Thurnam mentions that :— " The Eev. W. C. Lulds pre- 
 sented to the Museum of the Wilts Atchseological Society, at Devizes, 
 the very large horn-core of an ox, possibly Bos primigenius, from 
 some excavations made by him in the Chambered Long Barrow at 
 Tidcombe, in North Wilts. The barrow, however, had been previously 
 rifled, and it is doubtful whether or not this horn-core is of a period 
 coeval with or subsequent to its erection." Dr Thurnam classes the long 
 barrows as belonging to the Stone Period of the antiqiiary. This instance 
 would, therefore, appear to show the association of the urus with the 
 early inhabitants of the country. Eemains of the small ox, Bos longifrons, 
 though in small numbers, and also of the horse, &c., have been found in 
 the Long Chambered Barrows. In describing what he considers the 
 earlier simple Unchambered Long Barrow, Dr Thurnam says: — "The 
 remains of oxen found by me in the long barrows were uniformly such as 
 zoologists and comparative anatomists refer to the ancient small species, 
 the Bos longifvons or Bos hraehycei'os." 
 
 A third instance of the association of the urus with man in England 
 is recorded in the " Geological Magazine," London, vol. vi.,reb. 1869, in 
 a paper entitled, " Man and the Mammoth ; being an Account of the 
 Animals found associated with Early Man in Pre-historic Times," by 
 Henry Woodward, F.G.S., &c. of the British Museum. He states that : — 
 " A grand head and entire horn-cores, with a large proportion of the 
 skeleton of the Bos primigenius, was obtained from beneath the peat near 
 Cambridge. The peat had grown into and filled the cavities of the skull 
 and all the bones. On the removal of the peat from the frontal bone, a 
 stone celt was disclosed broken ofi' short in the forehead, which it had 
 pierced, and had been apparently left there as useless by the hunter to 
 whose skill the mighty beast had fallen. The specimen is now in the 
 Woodwardian Museum, Cambridge." Mr Woodward considers that the 
 hunter had left his broken celt sticking in the skull apparently as useless. 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 671 
 
 Imt it would appear he had also left the whole animal, as a largo portion 
 of the skeleton was found in the hog. The urus, we may of course 
 suppose, on receiving its death wound, had fallen into the bog and been 
 lost. As previous accounts showed similar statements were founded on 
 a mistake, I was anxious to learn the exact relation in this instance of 
 the stone celt to the fractured skull, but have unfortunately as yet failed 
 to get any precise information. Mr Keeping, the Curator of the Museum, 
 tells me the skull was found about 1863 by workmen while digging for 
 peat in the fens at Burnwell near Cambridge. The men sold it to Mr 
 W. Farren, and Dr Carter secured it for the Museum. The skull and 
 much of the skeleton were obtained. The skull measures 2 feet 5 inches 
 in length, and 9^ inches across the forehead between the roots of the 
 horn-cores. The horn-cores measure 2 feet 2|- inches along their convex 
 surface. There is an irregular fracture in the frontal bone between and 
 rather above the orbits, which it is supposed was caused by the celt. He 
 has kindly sent me a sketch of the celt, which shows apparently the lower 
 and broader extremity of an ordinary shaped stone celt, partially chipped on 
 the side, with the front polished at its edge. It measures 2 J inches across 
 its face, and 3 inches in length to its fractured surface above; and its maxi- 
 mum thickness is f of an inch. It seems rather a small and feeble 
 weapon to have pierced the strong forehead of the skull of a large urus. 
 I would, therefore, desiderate more minute information as to the relations of 
 both when first discovered, and would rather be inclined to suppose that, 
 like those already referred to as found at Whitmuirhall near Selkirk, 
 the stone celt may have been simply found lying in the same bed, and 
 perhaps not more closely associated with the skull. 
 
 Mr Thomas Bateman, in his "Ten Years' Digging in Celtic and Saxon 
 Grave HiUs," London, 1861, gives a list of the "Animal Eemains found 
 in the Tumuli associated with "Works of Human Art." In this list he 
 includes of the "Bovine, Bos urus? Bos longifrons? Domestic Cow;" and 
 states that the " remains are usually too imperfect to admit of the assertion 
 of three species, but we think that at least two may be recognised." 
 
 In Scotland, as shown by the various instances I have been able to 
 collect, we find the remains of the urus have been discovered in our clays 
 and river drifts and gravels, our lacustrine deposits, our marls and peat- 
 bogs, and in a few cases associated with the remains of other animals, 
 
672 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JUNE 10, 1872. 
 
 apparently among the debris in the ruLns of our ancient human dwellings, 
 suggesting, from their rarity there, as compared with the remains of the 
 small short-horned ox, that they had been probably spoils of the chase, 
 and not the remains of slaughtered domestic animals. "With the excep- 
 tion of the bones found at Crofthead, described by Mr Geikie as in a 
 bed intercalated with the boulder clay, and therefore, he thinks, of the 
 glacial period, I know no other instances corresponding to those in 
 England belonging to such an ancient period as the Glacial or Pre- 
 Glacial times. It would appear, also, to have been exterminated at an 
 early period, as no distinctive reference to its existence occurs, as far as I 
 am aware, in any of oui early Scottish records. I have already stated, on 
 the authority of the Eev. Thomas Eobertson, the discovery in 1781 of 
 skulls of the urus in marl pits near Selkirk, and the discovery in the 
 same locality of what appears to have been various bronze weapons, sug- 
 gesting, at least, the possibility of the animals having existed at the time 
 those weapons were used by the early natives of the district. The 
 remains, apparently allied to this great ox, found in the ruins of human 
 dweUings of Caithness and Orkney, may perhaps be considered to bring 
 its existence down to the times just preceding the invasion of the 
 Norsemen in the north of Scotland, from about the sixth to the eighth or 
 ninth centuries. 
 
 Csesar teUs us that in his time the urus was considered as quite untame- 
 able; and if it ever was domesticated, it does not appear, as far as I am 
 aware, to have existed in this state in Britain, or at least in Scotland. 
 
 Professor Nilsson says : — " That this wild ox has contributed to produce 
 the race of our large long-homed cattle is more than probable. When 
 and where tliis colossal flat-foreheaded, large-horned, wild ox first became 
 tamed we do not know ; but certainly it took place in remote antiquity, 
 and in a land far distant from us 
 
 " It appears to me probable that it was first tamed either in the south 
 or south-west of Europe, or abeady in Asia by some Celtic race ; but, 
 nevertheless, long after this it was often found in a wild or half-wild 
 state in the forests of Central Europe, even till the beginning or middle 
 of the sixteenth century ; that the tame race which sprung therefrom, 
 perhaps, like all tame races, became gradually smaller than the wild 
 stocks, but yet larger than other tame races which spring from smaller 
 
NOTES ON THE ANCIENT CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 67o 
 
 stocks ; and it was this large breed of blade cattle wliich. the Celtic races 
 brought with them here to the north, and which are spoken of in many 
 passages of our Sagas as belonging to the Totens (giants)," &c. 
 
 I have already brought forward the opposite view of Mr Youatt and 
 others, that domestication and man's management, instead of diminishing, 
 may increase the size of animals long under his care. Probably both the 
 one effect and the other may be produced under man's management and 
 the varying circumstances of his position, in different parts of the world. 
 
 The great uras would appear, as far as we at present know, to be more 
 ancient than the smaU short-horned ox, but both may be considered 
 varieties only in size and a few unimportant particulars of the same 
 species, the Bos taurus. The genus Bos, indeed, along with the few 
 other genera or species from which man has derived his domesticated 
 animals, seem to have had implanted in them, by their great Creator, 
 a special and peculiar power of adaptation, shown now in their many 
 varieties, to the ever varying circumstances of climate, food, and shelter, 
 fitting them thus to be taken by man, in all his wanderings, as he spreads 
 abroad over almost the whole of the habitable earth. 
 
 Distribution or Eange of the Large Long-Horned Ox, the Urds [Bos 
 primigenius, Owen), in Britain, and especially in Scotland. 
 
 This colossal species of ox. Professor Nilsson tells us, " was formerly 
 widely spread over the greater part of Europe, from the present Scania 
 to Prance and Italy, and from England to the northern and western parts 
 of Asia ; as in aU those places its fossU bones are found in more recent 
 strata." In the catalogue of Mammalian Eemains discovered in Ireland, 
 by E. H. Scott, Esq., given in the " Journal of the Geological Society of 
 Dublin," 1864, and " Geological Magazine," London, 1870, it is stated that 
 no remains of the Bos primigenhis have as yet been found in Ireland. 
 
 In England the urus has been discovered in many and various localities. 
 In Scotland, as shown by the numerous instances I have now been able 
 to group together, it occurs from Selkirkshire and' Eoxburghshire on the 
 south, and from Berwickshire on the east coast, to Kirkcudbright, Gallo- 
 way, and Ayrshire on the west ; through many of our midland counties, 
 and passing on by Aberdeenshire, to Sutherland and Caithness on the 
 north, and even, as it is stated, to the Orkney Islands. 
 
674 PKOCEEUINGS OF THE SOCIETY, JUNE 10, 1872. 
 
 Its remains have therefore been found over the greater part of Scot- 
 land, more especially, as yet, along its eastern borders, to the extreme 
 north of our island. 
 
 Jfote.—W. Boyd Dawkins, Esq., M.A., &o., has published important memoirs 
 in the " Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London," " On the British 
 Fossil Oxen," Bos urus, vol. xxii. 1866; £os longifrons, vol. xxiii. 1867. These 
 I was not fortunate enough to have seen until I had collected my recent Notes 
 on the Scottish cattle. I can only refer those who wish to study the subject to these, 
 and the other valuable memoirs published by Mr Boyd Dawkins on the "British Post- 
 Glacial Mammals," vol. xxv. 1869, and on " The Classification of the Pleistocene 
 Strata by means of the Mammalia," &c., " Quart. Journal Geol. Soc. Lend." for 1872. 
 
 XI. 
 
 ADDITIONAL NOTE TO COMMUNICATION ON "THE ANTIQUITIES OF 
 CULLEN AND BANFFSHIRE" (see pagk 274). By ANDREW JERVISE, 
 Esq., F.S.A. Scot. 
 
 As Andrew Duff of Muldavit, the husband of Helen Hay, is said to 
 have died about 1519 (Douglas' "Baronage,'' p. 138), the aisle of the 
 church of Cullen and the inscription must belong to the first half of the 
 sixteenth century. Until 1792 there was a recumbent effigy in the recess- 
 tomb in the south aisle at Cullen, also a slab with a figure in armour, 
 rudely incised, to the memory of John Duff of Muldavit, who, it is stated 
 thereon, died in 1404. 
 
 After the ordinary busiaess of the meeting, the Chairman, in nam.e of 
 the Society, presented Thomas B. Johnston, Esq., Vice-President, with 
 a piece of silver plate in token of their estimation of his valuable services 
 as Treasurer of the Society, an office which he had filled for twenty-one 
 years previous to his retirement jn IsTovember last. 
 
 The Society then adjourned to St Andrew's Day, 1872. 
 
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