9 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



widely distributed in Britain, although it appears never to have 

 been a native of Ireland. At the present day it is restricted 

 only to the northern districts of our islands, and is there be- 

 coming year by year more rare. This sole British representative 

 of the feline family is proved, both by tradition and by the dis- 

 covery of its fossilised remains in cavern and superficial de- 

 posits, to have originally ranged over the whole of such parts ot 

 England as were suited to its habits. Such remains have been 

 discovered in the Pleistocene brick-earths of Grays, in Essex, 

 in company with the remains of Mammoths, Hippopotami, 

 Rhinoceroses, and other Mammals now either totally extinct, 

 or long since banished from Britain to warmer climates. 

 They also occur, in association with similar creatures, in the 

 caves of Bleadon (in the Mendips), Cresswell Crags (Derby- 

 shire), Kent's Hole (near Torquay), Ravenscliff (Glamorgan- 

 shire), Uphill (in the Mendips), and the Vale of Clywd, while 

 quite recently they have been discovered in a fissure in the 

 Wealden rocks near Ightham, in Kent. 



When the Wild Cat disappeared from the south and mid- 

 land counties of England, appears to be quite unknown ; but 

 there is evidence that it lingered till a comparatively late date 

 in the wooded parts of the Lake district, although it does not 

 seem ever to have been numerous there during the historical 

 period. According to the Rev. H. A. Macpherson, there is 

 historical evidence of the existence of this animal in the Lake 

 district in the year 1629, and again as late as 1754; while in 

 the intervening period there are to be found in the parish 

 records numerous entries of the sums disbursed for the de- 

 struction of these marauders. At a still later date, Gilpin, when 

 describing a tour made through the district in 1772, says that 

 the mountains around Helvellyn, " and indeed many other 

 parts of the country are frequented by the Wild Cat, which 

 Mr. Pennant calls the British Tiger, and says it is the fiercest 



