4 INTRODUCTION. 



cultivation of tlie soil even had removed him above 

 the claims of hunger, he appears equally to have 

 indulged the passion — probably for the gratification 

 it gave and the advantages it brought in promoting 

 that tide of full health from which is derived the 

 pleasing consciousness of existence. 



Tradition, no less than archaeology and the 

 physical history of the country itself, lead us to 

 suppose that when those oscillations of level ceased 

 which led to the present distribution of land and 

 water, one-third of the face of the country was 

 covered with wood and another with uncultivated 

 moor, and that marsh lands were extensive. * Re- 

 mains dug up in the valley of the Severn, and others 

 along the wide stretch of country drained by its 

 tributaries, together with those disinterred from the 

 bog and the marsh, show that animals, like plants, 

 once indigenous, have at comparatively recent 

 periods become as extinct as Dodos in the Mauritius. 

 Old British names in various parts of the country, 

 particularly along the valley of the Severn, exist to 

 show that the beaver once built its house by the 

 stream, that the badger burrowed in its banks, and 

 that the eagle and the falcon reared their young on 

 the rocks above. At the same time, evidence exists 



