DESTRUCTION FOR SAFETY OF MAN AND STOCK 113 



the Tyne-Solway Wall of a tooth of a large Bear, the per- 

 forations in which hint that the slayer wore the relic as a 

 badge of prowess. "} 



The assumption is a fair one that if the Bear existed in 

 England at the time of the Roman occupation it was also 

 present in the much wilder country of Scotland, and side- 

 lights of history support this idea. In the years after 

 the Roman occupation of Britain, Caledonian Bears were 

 well known in Rome, whither they were transported over- 





Fig. 27. Brown Bear, a former native of Scotland (illustration from individual 

 in Scottish Zoological Park, Edinburgh). ^ nat. size. 



seas to make sport in the amphitheatre. Malefactors bound 

 to a cross were exposed to the attacks of these savage 

 denizens from far-off Scotland, as Martial reminds us, 



Hanging on no slim cross, Laureolus 

 His naked body to a Caledonian bear 

 Thus proffered 1 . 



That the Bear still survived in Scottish woods after the 

 Roman legions had gone, both archaeology and tradition 



1 "Nuda Caledonio sic pectora praebuit urso, 

 Non falsa pendens in cruce, Laureolus." 



