Iv 
QuADRUPEDS, 
BN Gn BR Ne Be 
Beyond the meafure vaft of thought, 
The works, the wizard Time hath wrought ! \ 
The Gaul, it’s held of antique ftory, 
Saw Britain link’d to his now adverfe ftrand ; 
No fea between, nor cliff fublime and hoary, 
He pafs’d with unwet feet through all our land. 
To the blown Baltic then, they fay, 
The wild waves found another way. Ge, 
CoLiins’s Ode to Liberty. 
If, after the event by which our ifland was torn from the continent, the migra- 
tion over fo narrow a ftreight might, in the earlier ages, have been very readily 
effeted in the vitilia navigia or coracles, or the monoxyla or canoes in ufe in the © 
remote periods ; but the numerous fpecies of Quadrupeds never could have fwam 
into ourifland, even over fuch a contracted water, which at all times muft have 
been pofleffed by tides ‘fo rapid, as to baffle their utmoft efforts : their paflage, 
therefore, muft have been over the antient ifthmus ; for it is contrary to common 
fenfe to fuppofe, that our anceftors would have been at the trouble of tranfporting 
fuch guefts as wolves and bears, and the numerous train of lefler rapacious ani- 
mals, even had it been practicable for them to have introduced the domeftic and 
ufeful f{pecies, 
Would they on board or Bears or Lynxes take, 
Feed the She-adder, and the brooding Snake ? 
Prior. 
Men and beafts found their way into Great Britain,from the fame quarter. 
We have no Quadrupeds but what are alfo found in France ; and among our 
loft animals may be reckoned the Urus, p. 2; Wolf, N° 9; Bear, N° 203;- 
Wild Boar; and the Beaver, N° 40: all which were once common to 
both countries. The Urus continued among us in a ftate of nature as Jate 
at left as the year 1466 *: and I have feen fome of their defcendants, fcarcely 
to be called tame, in confinement in the parks of Drumlanrig and Chilling- 
ham+. The Caledonian Bears were exported to Rome, and efteemed for their 
fiercenefs {. “They continued in Scotland till the year 1057. They exifted in 
Wales, perhaps, till the fame period ; for our antient laws ranked them among the 
beafts of chace §. Wolves infefted even the middle counties of England as late as 
the year 1281, and continued their ravages in North Britain in the reign of Queen 
Elizabeth; nor were they wholly extirpated till the year 1680. The Wild 
* Six Wild Bulls were ufed at the inftallation feaft of George-Nevil, archbifhop of York. Leland’s 
Golled. vis 2 + Tours in Scotland. $ Martial, Plutarch  —-§ Raii Sym Quad. 214. 
5 Boars 
