25 
stags, uri, and bison were to be seen in the open country, while 
the Irish elk and the roe were comparatively rare. Three 
kinds of rhinoceros, and two kinds of elephants lived in the 
forests. The hippopotamus haunted the banks of the Thames, as 
well as the beaver, the water rat, and the otter. There were 
wolves also, and foxes, brown bears and grisly bears, wild cats, and 
lions of enormous size.” This was all the result of physical 
geography. And the primeval hunter followed them all. 
It is worth while asking, What if things had remained so? 
How different might the course of history have run if the British 
area had continued to be merely an extension of Scandinavia to 
the west, aud of France to the north, and no Channel or North 
Sea had ever been formed by the subsidence of the land! ‘There 
is no fact,” says Professor Freeman, speaking of the original 
migration of the Angles or English people, ‘there is no fact in 
the whole history of our people more important than this, that our 
first settlement was made in an island. No migration to any other 
part of the continent could have had the same consequences as our 
migration from the continent to the isle of Great Britain. Our 
insular position determined our history, and determined our 
national character.’ ‘As for Ireland,’ says Mr. Scott Keltie, 
‘her present troubles, which are also ours, are all due to St. 
George’s Channel and her own bogs. Had Ireland and England 
been still as of yore, one continuous land, her conquest would 
have been begun long before it was, and would have been at least 
as complete as that of Wales and Scotland.” 
And, it may be added, the infusion of Teutonic blood in that 
Celtic island would have been farmore complete; for the succes- 
sive hordes of invaders would not have been checked by the sea. 
But, alas! St. George’s Channel was formed, the separation was 
effected ; hence the Irish question, hence also the Welsh question. 
Even our politics, you see, depend on geology. 
Long ages afterwards, the Norsemen found the Shetlands and 
Orkneys very convenient stopping places ; hence they found their 
way to Caithness and Sutherland (their southern land), but not 
much further. Why not?—Because the physical geography 
hindered them; all the country was covered with mountains, 
moor, and morass, and there was little inducement to cross them. 
Afterwards these same bogs and mountains played another 
important part in history. The men who penetrated into the 
Highlands by way of the east coast, or up from the south, made 
their way through the passes to the interior, and found there 
' suitable retreats, in which they could, and did for a long time, 
defy the attacks of other tribes, and also the authority of the 
crown. Not only that, but the clans were able to isolate them- 
selves within these natural boundaries, to keep separate and dis- 
