DISTRIBUTION AND GEOGRAPHY. 305 



as being that which is cleft asunder, and other matters ; 

 after which comes this quaint and interesting passage : 



" Another reason there is that this separation hath 

 been made since the flood, which is also very consider- 

 able, and that is the patriarch Noe, having had with 

 him in the Ark all sorts of beasts, these then, after the 

 flood, being put forth of the ark to increase and mul- 

 tiply, did afterward in time disperse themselves over 

 all parts of the continent or main land ; but long after 

 it could not be before the ravenous wolf had made his 

 kind nature known to man, and therefore no man unless 

 he were mad, would ever transport of that race out of 

 the continent into the isles, no more than men will 

 ever carry foxes (though they be less damageable) out 

 of our continent into the Isle of Wight. But our Isle, 

 as is aforesaid, continuing since the flood fastened by 

 nature unto the Great Continent, those wicked beasts 

 did of themselves pass over. And if any should object 

 that England hath no wolves on it they may be answered 

 that Scotland, being therewith conjoined, hath very 

 many, and so England itself sometime also had, until 

 such time as King Edgar took order for the destroying 

 of these throughout the whole realm." 



The preservation of foxes for sporting purposes was 

 evidently quite out of the range of thought at this not 

 very distant epoch, and our author, in consequence, 

 made a little mistake as to what men " ever" would do 

 in the case of these noxious animals ; but his general 

 argument is sound, and it becomes much strengthened 

 when we 'take into consideration the smaller vermin, such 

 as stoats, weasels, moles, hedgehogs, fieldmice, vipers, 

 toads, and newts, which would certainly not all have been 



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