Page:The Evolution of British Cattle.djvu/30

Bos longifrons—from Switzerland
	From Rütimeyer.

Bos longifrons has been reconstructed again and again from his resurrected skeleton. From Swedish skeletons Nilsson describes him thus^[1]: "This is the smallest of all the ox tribe which lived in a wild state in our portion of the globe. 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 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

1. "Annals and Magazine of Natural History," vol. iv. second series, 1849, p. 352.