46 RELIQUIAE AQTJITANIC^E 



in Caesar's time, and as now in parts of Northern Europe and in the corre- 

 sponding latitudes of North America were the resort of vast herds of Reindeer, 

 which periodically, during the summer months, migrated towards the mountains 10 , 

 driven thither as a refuge from the flies, of whose attacks they are peculiarly 

 susceptible, and especially those of a species of Gad-fly (the (Estrus tarandi), that 

 in these migrations a sufficient number were slaughtered to afford an important 

 amount of food and clothing to the inhabitants, eked out by the yield of their 

 flocks and herds and other local resources, that with the increase of inhabitants 

 the supply gradually decreased, and that under constant molestation the herds 

 retreated northwards towards the less frequented or more spacious forests bor- 

 dering on the Northern Alps, that a portion of the inhabitants, with their 

 nomadic habits, followed the migrations of the retreating herds, and took posses- 

 sion of other lands where they could enjoy their favourite pastime and obtain 

 their wonted supplies displacing the previous inhabitants, who were unable to 

 resist them, or possibly in time amalgamating with them. 



This, mutatis mutandis, is almost literally the history of tribes of men, and 

 races of the larger animals, in North America. There are parts where the Rein- 

 deer (once numerous) are no longer found, others where the bones of the Bison 

 alone indicate their once having occupied the land, but whence they have dis- 

 appeared within the last fifty years, or within the last ten, or the last five years ". 

 But there is in the present case an end, I think, to speculation on the subject 

 when we refer to Caesar the surest guide, with Tacitus, in all that relates to old 

 Gaul or Ancient Britain. He says (Bel. Gal. lib. vi.), " Ac fuit antea tempus, 

 quum Germanos Galli virtute superarent, et ultro bella inferrent, ac propter homi- 

 num multitudinem agrique inopiam trans Rhenum colonias mitterent. Itaque 



ea, quse fertilissima sunt, Germanise loca circum Hercyniam sylvam Volcae 



Tectosages occupaverunt, atque ibi consederunt. Quse gens ad hoc tempus iis 

 sedibus sese continet, summamque habet justitiae et bellicse laudis opinion em : 

 nunc quoque in eadem inopia, egestate, patientia, qua Germani, permanent ; 

 eodem victu et cultu corporis utuntur, &c."* This emigration is set down by 

 Livy (as quoted in the notes to the Delphin edition of Caesar) as having taken 

 place under Ambigatus, King of the Bituriges, who appears to have been con- 

 temporary with Tarquinius Priscus, and consequently to have lived between 

 500 and 600 years B.C., or about 600 before the age of Julius Caesar. 



* He continues to say that those of the Gauls (i. e. of the Volcse Tectosages) who did not emigrate, gradually 

 lost their primitive habits (retained hy the others) through the propinquity of the province and the intro- 

 duction of foreign commodities or luxuries. Their valour, too, became impaired through the same causes. 



