this name by F. yon Meyer, from the Diluvium of Arezzo and Siena. This variety has hitherto only been found at Concise.
The third, or Longifrons race, is by far the most common of the three. It occurs in all the Pileworks, and at Moosseedorf and Wangen—that is to say, in the settlements which are supposed to be the oldest, almost to the exclusion of the Primigenius race. M. Rütimeyer considers that it is the domesticated form of B. longifrons of Owen, but as the word "longifrons" seems to him to be inappropriate and incorrect, he uses the name "brachyceros," which was originally proposed in manuscript by Owen for this species, but which has also been used by Gray for an African species, and ought not therefore to be adopted.
A subsequent portion of the work is devoted to the examination of the existing races of European Oxen. The old Trochoceros race he considers to be extinct, but he sees in the great Oxen of Friesland, Jutland, and Holstein, the descendants of the Bos primigenius. This race does not now occur in Switzerland, but he considers that there are at present in that country two distinct varieties of Domestic Oxen. The one of various shades between light grey and dark brown, but without spots, and prevailing in Schwyz, Uri, Wallis, &c., in fact, in the whole country south of a line drawn from the Lake of Constance to Wallis, agrees in its general osteological characters with the Bos longifrons of Owen. The other or spotted variety, which is generally of smaller size, and prevails in Northern Switzerland, is considered by M. Rütimeyer to be descended from the B. frontosus, a species found fossil in Sweden and described by Nillson.
I will not express any opinion of my own as to these conclusions. The subject is one no less difficult than important, and our space does not permit us to lay before our readers the details given by M. Rütimeyer, to whose work therefore we must refer all those who wish for more information on the subject. All naturalists must feel much indebted to M. Rütimeyer for the labour he has spent, and the light he has thrown upon the subject, whether we eventually adopt his conclusions or not. In six woodcuts at the termination of this memoir, I give representations of the skulls of these three races, and those of the corresponding fossil species.
Human bones occur in the Pileworks but very seldom, and may no doubt be referred to accidents, especially as we find that those of children are most numerous. One mature skull was, however, discovered at Meilen, and has been described by Professor His, who considers that it does not differ much from the ordinary Swiss type. And while his work was in the press, M. Rütimeyer received from M. Schwab four more skulls, two of which were obtained at Nidan-Steinberg, one at Sutz, and one from Biel.
M. Troyon has a very interesting chapter on the different modes of burial; he points out that the disposition of the corpse after death, had a deep meaning and is perhaps of greater importance than the nature of the tomb, which must in many cases have depended upon that of the materials which came to hand. The Greeks gener-
