II. 



ANIMALS WHICH HAVE BECOME EXTIXCT IN BRITAIN 

 WITHIN HISTORIC TIMES. 



By J. E. Haetixg, F.L.S., F.Z.S. 



Head at Watford, 21st Octuber, 1879. 



It is a curious reflection at the present clay, as Tve pass over some 

 of the wihlor parts of the country, that at one time these same 

 moors and woods and glens, which we now traverse so securely, 

 were infested to such an extent with ferocious animals that a 

 journey of any length was, on that account, attended with con- 

 siderahle danger. Droves of wolves, which usually issued forth at 

 night to ravage the herdsman's flocks, were ever ready to attack 

 the solitary horseman or unwary traveller on foot who might 

 venture to pass within reach of their hiding-places. In the oak- 

 woods and amongst the reed-beds which fringed the meres, wild 

 boars lurked, while munching their rich store of acorns, or wallow- 

 ing as is their wont in lacustrine mire while they searched for the 

 palatable roots of aquatic plants. Many a traveller then had cause 

 to rue the sudden and unexpected rush of some grand old patriarch 

 of the " sownder," who with gnashing tusks charged out upon the 

 invader of his domain, occasionally unhorsing him, and not unfre- 

 qiiently inflicting severe injuries upon his steed. 



In the wilder recesses of the forests, and amongst the caves and 

 boulders of the mountain-side, the bear, too, had his stronghold, 

 and though exterminated at a much earlier period, long co-existed 

 with the animals we have named ; while in a few favoured locali- 

 ties in the west and north, the harmless inottensive beaver built its 

 dam, and dived in timid haste at the approach of an intruder. 



In the present day it is difiicult to realize such a state of things, 

 unless we consider at the same time the aspect and condition of the 

 country in which these animals lived, and the remarkable physical 

 changes which have since taken place. 



jS'othing we have now left can give us any idea of the state of 

 things then : not the moors of North Derbyshire, West Yorkshire, 

 and Lancashire, the wild wastes of Westmoreland, Cumberland, 

 and Northumberland, nor even the extensive deer-forests and 

 moors of the Scottish Highlands ; for the pathless woods which 

 then covered a great part of these districts are all gone, and so also 

 are the thick forests which outside of, but connected with them, 

 skirted these higher grounds. The advance of man and the progress 

 of cultivation has destroyed most of these wild woods ; but it was 

 not so in late Saxon, or in early Norman, times. Even in the less 

 hilly districts more than half the countiy was one vast forest, and 

 in the north at least these forests flanked the mountain-ranges, 

 extending their wild influence, and at the same time rendering 



