s occurs in a fossil state in some numbers in Ireland; it has
also been found in England. It is by some supposed to be the origin of,
or, at least, to have contributed blood to, the middling Highland races
with high occiput, and small horns.

There is more certainty of the co-existence of the small _B. longifrons_
with man. Some of the evidence I have already adduced. "Within a few
years," says a trustworthy authority, "we have read in one of the
scientific periodicals,--but have just now sought in vain for the
notice,--of a quantity of bones that were dug up in some part of
England, together with other remains of what seemed to be the relics of
a grand feast, held probably during the Roman domination of Britain,
for, if we mistake not, some Roman coins were found associated with
them. _There were skulls_ and other remains of _Bos longifrons_ quite
undistinguishable in form from the antique fossil, whether wild or
domesticated, which, of course, remains a question."[55]

Professor Owen conjectures that this species may have contributed to
form the present small shaggy Highland and Welsh cattle,--the kyloes and
runts; and a similar breed in the northern parts of Scania may have had
a similar origin.

In the _Bison priscus_, the fossil remains of which occur in many parts
of Europe, and more sparsely in Great Britain,[56] we have an example of
a noble animal, which, contemporary with all those which have been
engaging our attention, survives to the present hour, but is dying out,
and would have long ago been extinguished, probably, but for the
fostering influence of human conservation. For the species is considered
as absolutely identical with the _Bison Europaeus_ of modern zoology, the
Bison or Wisent of the Germans, the Aurochs of the Prussians, the Zubr
of the Poles, that formidable creature, which is maintained by the Czar
in an ever-diminishing herd in the vast forests of Lithuania,[57] and
which, perhaps, still lingers in the fastnesses of the Caucasus. This,
the largest, or at least the most massive of all existing quadrupeds,
after the great Pachyderms, roamed over Germany in some numbers as late
as the era of Charlemagne. Considerably later than this it is reckoned
among the German beasts of chase, for in the _Niebelungen Lied_, a poem
of the twelfth century, it is said,

"Dar nach schlouch er schiere, einen wisent und einen elch,
Starcher ure viere, und einen grimmen schelch."

"After thi