GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE FAUNA. 213 



and Eussia, Scandinavia and Siberia, as far as the shores of 

 the Amoor. 



The ibex survived in the Swiss Alps somewhat longer than 

 the elk. It has lingered longest in the West. In Glarus the 

 last one perished in 1550, though near Chiavenna it existed 

 until the 'commencement of the seventeenth century, and in 

 the Tyrol until the second half of the eighteenth ; while a few 

 still exist in the neighbourhood of Mont Ise*ran, where they 

 are protected by the King of Italy. 



The extermination of the bear, like that of the ibex, seems 

 to have begun in the East, and is not yet complete, since this 

 animal still occurs in the Jura and the Orisons, whence it 

 occasionally visits the Yalais and the south-eastern parts of 

 Switzerland. The fox, the otter, and the different species of 

 weasel, are still the common carnivora of Switzerland, and 

 the wild cat, badger and wolf still occur in the Jura and the 

 Alps, the latter in cold winters venturing even into the plains. 

 The beaver, on the contrary, has at last disappeared from Swit- 

 zerland. It had long been very rare, but some survived until 

 the beginning of the present century in Lucerne and Valais. 

 A few still exist in France near the mouth of the Ehone. 

 Eed deer were abundant in the Jura and the Black Forest in 

 the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, though they do not appear 

 to have been so large as those which lived in earlier times. 

 The last was shot in the canton of Basle, at the close of the 

 eighteenth century, while in western Switzerland and Valais 

 they lingered somewhat longer. The roe-deer still occurs in 

 some places. 



It appears, therefore, that the animals of the Swiss Pile- 

 works belong to the fauna which has occupied Europe from 

 the commencement of the Palaeolithic period down to the 

 present time. 



While, however, we must regard the fauna of the Stone 

 Age as belonging to the same great zoological epoch as that 



