CHAP, vin.] PKEHISTORIC MAMMALIA IN BRITAIN, ETC. 257 



Canada than that which characterises Germany at the 

 present time. Mr. Godwin Austen draws the same con- 

 clusion, from the thick bark of the trees, in his memoir 

 on the " Superficial Accumulations of the Coasts of the 

 English Channel/' 1 



Prehistoric Mammalia in Britain and Ireland. 



The mammalia inhabiting Great Britain and Ireland 

 in the Prehistoric period may be divided into three 

 groups the wild species which have survived from 

 the Pleistocene age ; those which have been introduced 

 under the care of man ; and lastly, the domestic animals 

 which have reverted to a wild state. In the forests and 

 woodlands then covering the British Isles, and extending 

 to a little distance beyond the present coast-line (Fig. 

 95), were wild boars, horses, roes and stags, Irish elks, 

 true elks, and reindeer, and the great wild ox, the urus, 

 as well as the Alpine hare, the common hare, and the 

 rabbit. Wolves, foxes and badgers, martens and wild 

 cats, were abundant ; the brown bear, and the closely 

 allied variety the grisly bear, w^ere the two most formid- 

 able competitors of man in the chase. Otters pursued 

 the salmon and the trout in the rivers, beavers con- 

 structed their wonderful dams, and water rats haunted 

 the banks of the streams. These constitute the first 

 group of survivals from the Pleistocene age. 



The Irish elk 2 demands especial notice among the 

 Prehistoric wild animals from its vast numbers in Ire- 

 land, as well as from the fact that it is the sole survivor 

 from the Pleistocene into the Prehistoric age, which 



1 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. Lond. vii. 118. 

 2 Hart Descrip. of Fossil Deer of Ireland, 2d ed., 1830, p. 13. 



S 



