330 THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FOREST 



SOME INDIVIDUAL EXAMPLES 



It is natural that appeal should be made to the animals 

 at present characteristic of the pine forests of temperate 

 lands. What has the race of Deer to teach us ? 



It will simplify the enquiry to state, obvious though they 

 are, the symptoms in the history of animals which betray 

 the impress of environment. Well marked stages in animal 

 life indicate prosperity or decline. In a progressively favour- 

 able environment an animal first increases in numbers, then 

 spreads beyond its first bounds to new areas, and lastly may 

 tend to develop new superfluities of structure. On the other 

 hand in a progressively unfavourable environment an animal 

 decreases in numbers, its range becomes more and more 

 limited, its physique deteriorates, and finally it disappears. 



How does the history of the race of Deer in Scotland 

 respond to these criteria ? There can be only one answer 

 it is'a story of decreasing numbers, of curtailment of range, of 

 dwindling physique, and of extinction. All the species of 

 Deer have not shared equal disaster, but the cumulative effect 

 of their histories is not less telling. Glance at their stories, 

 as they have been recorded in the early deposits of the 

 country and in history. 



THE ROE DEER 



The Roe Deer (Capreolus capreolus], the most lightsome 

 and graceful, was once also amongst the most familiar of the 

 denizens of Scottish woods. From north to south it roamed 

 in freedom, not in Scotland only, but far into the woodlands 

 of South Britain, for its bones have been found in Essex, 

 Oxfordshire and in the southern corner of Wales. Civiliza- 

 tion long since drove the native Roes from England. 



In Scotland relics in river gravels, peat bogs and 

 the settlements of man witness to the extent of the Roe 

 Deer's range and the abundance of its numbers. About 

 the time of man's first settlement in Scotland it spread to 

 the southern borders: its remains have been found in the 

 river-gravels of Berwickshire at Coldingham, and, in com- 

 pany with those of the Reindeer and Brown Bear, deep in 

 the peat of Shaws in Dumfriesshire. In human settlements 



