Genus Ovibos
D u r in g the Pleistocene Age the Musk Ox, Ovibos m o sc h a tu swas found in
England as well as throughout a great part of Northern Europe and Asia. In
Canada and Greenland it still exists, and at one time extended as far west as Alaska.
In Europe its southern limit seems to have been the Alps and the Pyrenees.
In England its remains were first discovered at Maidenhead in 1875 by Sir
John Lubbock (Lord Avebury) and Charles Kingsley, and there are six or seven
other records from the superficial deposits of Bromley, Freshford, Barnwood,
Crayford, Trimingham, and Frampton-on-Severn.
The Musk Ox must have disappeared from England before the coming of man.
It was contemporary with the Saiga antelope (Saiga tartaricd), whose only
remains (a frontlet) were discovered at Twickenham some years ago. 1
1 Ovibos moschatus, De Blainville, B ull. Soc. Philom. 1816, p. 8 1; Bubalis moschatus, Owen, Quart. Joum . G eol Soc.
1856, xii. 124.
