Q74 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
view such creatures as the Brown Bear, the Wolf, the Wild Boar, 
the Beaver, and the Reindeer, it is a curious reflection that they 
were all formerly denizens of this country, and must at one time 
have been very numerous here. In what localities aud under 
what conditions they existed, by whom they were hunted, and 
how they gradually became exterminated, are topics which seem 
well worth investigation. 
With regard to their former haunts, I will ask you to glance 
at the series of maps before you, on which I have indicated by 
patches of colour the various localities in which their remains 
have been exhumed, or which we know from history were 
frequented by them. These will enable you, in much less time 
than I could give the details, to form a good notion of the former 
distribution of these animals in the British islands, premising 
only that the distribution here indicated affords merely an 
approximative view of the existing state of things some centuries 
ago—say at the date of the Norman conquest; for while only 
those localities are indicated which are known with certainty 
to have been the former haunts of the animals in question, 
there are doubtless very many others which were at one time 
frequented by them, but concerning which at present we have no 
information. 
To realise the conditions under which such animals as the 
Bear, the Wolf, and the Wild Boar existed in England, it is 
necessary to consider the aspect of the country when they were 
denizens of it, and the great physical changes which have since 
taken place. To go back no further than the date of the Norman 
Conquest, more than half the country was at that time covered 
with forest, which stretched uninterruptedly for miles and miles 
through several counties without a break. Through the greater 
part of these there were no roads, and we may therefore easily 
conceive what impenetrable strongholds they afforded to the 
animals in question. One of these, however, the Bear, was in all 
probability at this time extinct, for I have been unable to find 
any historical evidence of its existence here after the Conquest; 
but the Wolf and the Wild Boar held their ground for many 
centuries later, as we shall presently see. 
Not content with the vast extent of forest which he found 
existing here on his arrival, William the Conqueror appropriated 
for the chase large tracts of land, much of which had been 
