a CF THE CAVE AT KIRKDALE. . , 37 



have inhabited the northern hemisphere, why may 

 not this have been the case since that event f and, 

 as it respects the means by which they arrived here, 

 there may have been many of which we have no idea. 

 If it be asked, how the animals could come here, the 

 question may be answered with another, how the 

 others came into this kingdom ? all excepting fishes 

 were included in the ark at the deluge, and one 

 beast would be as likely as another to find its way 

 to Britain. We know not what connection existed 

 soon after the deluge between this country and the 

 continent ; nor what change has taken place in the 

 English Channel, which is considered as a submarine 

 valley. It is known that the strata of Dover and 

 the hills west of Calais correspond, as well as the 

 coast of Dorset and Devon and that of Normandy ; 

 and though, like families of men, the race of some 

 of the animals found here are extinct in this country, 

 it is only what has taken place with some species 

 which we are sure from the testimony of history 

 did inhabit this kingdom, some of the bones of which 

 were mixed with the bones found at Kirkdale. 



Wolves were formerly inhabitants of this country; 

 they multiplied to the terror of its inhabitants, so as 

 to come under the notice of royalty. Edgar the 

 King, in the year 975, imposed on the Welsh princes 

 a tribute of wolves' heads, which for three years 

 amounted to three hundred each year. This ex- 

 tirpated them in that district, and the tribute ceased : 

 we find however that some years after the decease 

 of that Saxon monarch, these animals were again so 

 oauch increased as to become the object of royal at- 



