496 CHAINS OF CIRCUMSTANCE 



covers and secluded places have been turned into fields. 

 Even the wastes whither it could retire when hard pressed, 

 have become the grazing grounds of multitudes of Sheep. 

 Throughout this country where the wild beast once roamed 

 free, only one quarter of the surface remains clear of the 

 influences of domestication and civilization, and much of this 

 is barren mountain side. The forests have shrunk, till only 

 one-twentieth of a country which was once half woodland, 

 remains under trees, and under the stress of war this remnant 

 too is disappearing (Fig. 86, p. 484). 



But the centres of industry have offered new homes, the 

 crumbs that fall from the table sustain many dependants, 

 and on the multiplied food supplies of the fields new multi- 

 tudes find a living. So that man seems to have cleared 

 away one race of animals only to make room for others. 

 Have the actual numbers of the wild fauna fallen, since man 

 first put his spoke in the wheel of Nature ? I doubt it. 

 Think of the multitudes of Sparrows and other seed-eaters 

 he has created, of the swarms of Rabbits and Rats, Mice, 

 House Flies and other pests which gather about his doors and 

 houses and fields, even of the increasing Earthworms of his 

 gardens. Do their numbers not compensate (as numbers) 

 for the disappearance of a few Reindeer, Elks and Brown 

 Bears, and even of many Wolves, Wild Cats, and other 

 decadents ? 



INCREASE IN VARIETY 



Is then the feeling of meagreness which always arises 

 when we compare the present fauna with the old, due to a 

 new lack of variety ? This cannot be, for the fourteen, or 

 so, species of beasts and birds and the few additional insects 

 which have been banished from Scotland since man interfered, 

 are more than replaced, so far as species go, by the creatures 

 he has introduced either deliberately, like the Fallow Deer, 

 the Rabbit, the Squirrels, the Pheasant, and many others, 

 or has brought accidentally with his commerce from foreign 

 lands the Black and Brown Rats, and a score of parasites 

 and pests which have settled comfortably in the land. 



