IN WESTERN EUROPE. 155 



those wliich liave been tamed by man and domesticated ; 

 beasts of prey are almost unknown ; and, in a word, the 

 character of animal life in Temperate Europe has been 

 more powerfully modified by civilizing influences than that 

 of any other region of the globe. 



Of the wild land-animals still existing in Europe, very 

 few are now found in its western lands, as the followino; 

 list will prove : the reindeer, elk, red and fallow deer, roe- 

 buck, glutton, lynx, polecat, wild cat, squirrel, fox, wild 

 boar, wolf, browqi bear, black bear, and weasel. Several 

 of these are never seen in Great Britain except in museums 

 and menageries ; others are rapidly dying out. The otter 

 is still an inhabitant of some of our British rivers, and the 

 newspapers occasionally contain paragraphs descriptive of 

 an otter hunt ; but the beaver is now restricted to the 

 upper waters of the Rhine and the Bhone, to the Danube, 

 and some other large rivers. It may be added that the 

 European beaver seems less ingenious, or at all events less 

 adventurous, than his American congener. 



It is needless to say that rabbits and hares are numerous ; 

 the former burrowing in sandy warrens, the latter fre- 

 quenting the wooded districts. The hedgehog is ubiquit- 

 ous ; but the porcupine does not range so far as Western 

 Europe, he confines himself to the sunny south. 



The ibex and the chamois are found in the Alps, as well 

 as in the Pyrenees. Of the former we have already spoken ; 

 the latter is sufficiently celebrated in these days of Alpine 

 adventure to claim a special place in our gallery of ani- 

 mated nature. Moreover, Byron has made his readers 

 familiar with it : — 



