Beaver and Reindeer 



degrees they became restricted to certain areas, while 

 their ranks year by year diminished, until ultimately 

 the Beaver became rare — then extinct. 



In recent times attempts have been made to reintro- 

 duce the Beaver, but, like all other movements of a 

 similar nature, these have ended in complete failure. 

 There is no more room in the twentieth century for 

 the Beaver than there is for the Reindeer on the hills 

 or the Wild Boar in our woods. The Beaver might 

 ornament a baronial lake merely as a unique specimen 

 of a once native mammal of the British Isles, but the 

 day of the Beaver as a wild animal is numbered with 

 the things that were. 



Of the Reindeer, historians write that this animal 

 was at one time far more abundant in our island than 

 even the Red Deer is to-day. It is also said that 

 Reindeer existed in Britain as late as the middle of the 

 twelfth century. That Reindeer roamed in Britain is 

 beyond dispute : history relates so, and the remains 

 which have been found of extinct animals confirm the 

 fact. But centuries have rolled away since the Rein- 

 deer flourished in our island, and although several 

 instances are recorded of attempts being made to re- 

 establish the Reindeer as a British mammal, none of 

 these laudable enterprises have borne fruit. Space 

 cannot now be given the Reindeer in our insular area. 

 The Midlands are seething with humanity, the High- 

 lands with Red Deer and Grouse. The day of the 



B.L.M. 8 1 II 



