[page] 152

An extract from a letter addressed to Dr. Andrew Smith by A. G. Bain, Esq., dated Graham Town, Cape of Good Hope, February 21st, 1839, and communicated by Charles Darwin, Esq., was first read.

The object of this extract is to announce the discovery, by Mr. Martin Smith, of the piths and portions of the head of an ox in the alluvial banks of the Modder, one of the tributaries of the Orange river, and 40 feet below the surface of the ground. The piths with the breadth across the os frontis measured 11 feet 7 inches, but it is calculated that 5 inches had been broken off the end of each tip; and the circumference of the piths at the root was 18 inches. The orbits were situated immediately under the base of the horns. Part of the upper jaw, containing five molar teeth and other fragments of the head, as well as a cervical vertebra, were found at the same time.