XXXVIII. THE PAST AND FUTURE OF 

 BRITISH MAMMALS 



A RECENT number of the Edinburgh Review contained 

 an interesting essay on our lost and vanishing land 

 mammals. Omitting the seals, whales and porpoises 

 from his list, the writer gave a careful history of the 

 4 last days ' of the bear, the wolf, the boar and the 

 beaver in these islands, and an estimate of the future of 

 the wild cat, polecat, marten, otter and badger if the 

 forces which have made for their extermination are 

 unchecked. Of the lost animals, the bears were the 

 first to disappear. They were so numerous that in 

 Roman times Scotch bears were regularly shipped to 

 Rome for use in the arena. One wonders who were 

 employed to catch them, but the urgent requests made 

 to Cicero when Governor of Cilicia to supply his 

 friends in Rome with ' panthers ' shows that this was 

 a recognised means of obliging political friends at a 

 much earlier date. The writer notes that the town 

 of Norwich, in the time of Edward the Confessor, used 



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