216 ~=REYV. G. S. DOBBIE ON INFLUENCE OF CIVILIZATION 
population has been slow, there has long existed a tendency 
to enlarge great cities; but the consequent depopulation of 
rural districts has by no means diminished the encroachments 
upon the freedom of the wild beasts of the field. The greater 
a social community becomes, the more numerous and diversi- 
fied are its wants; and as the cultivation of the waste land, 
the clearing of the forest or the draining of the swamp, is 
followed by the growing scarcity or total disappearance of 
the wild animals which formerly found safety in such retreats, 
the price put on the heads of the wretched outlaws is con- 
stantly increased. 
Under such dire conditions, it is not surprising that scarcely 
a single indigenous species is at present extending its range 
of geographical distribution ; that, on the contrary, the major- 
ity of interesting species are becoming rarer year by year, 
and that several of them are rapidly approaching extinction. 
Such a crisis could not but arrive eventually, but its progress 
has been immensely accelerated by the revolutions which 
have taken place in the domain of mechanical science within 
the last hundred years. The modern sportsman finds himself 
in a few days transported safely to hunting-grounds on which, 
had he lived less than a century ago, he durst not have set 
his foot; he arms himself with weapons which enable him 
to dismiss the thought of personal danger, and can pursue 
his despicable pleasure without being required to sacrifice the 
comforts and luxuries of home life. Pari passu with the 
advance of mechanical science march the influences by which 
the best protected of the lower animals are hurried to their 
end. The crafty wolverine and the wary fox are deceived 
by the artfully-laid spring trap, and the wolf itself can be 
lured to eat the poisoned bait. By means of the repeating 
rifle the long-sighted ibex is laid low before it is aware of the 
position of its enemy; the strong-boned wild boar is stopped 
in its impetuous course ; the very limmergeyer, as it wheels 
about its awful eyrie, receives the mortal wound and must 
drop into the abyss. 
It must not be supposed that the wild animals of mone 
are more easily exterminated than their analogues in other 
continents, Observation has shown that the bear clings toa 
locality with a tenacity possessed by none'of the more highly 
