182 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



Caledonian Forest ended. Considerably below this, in 

 the valley formed by the Wooler Water, and nearly 

 intermediate between it and Chillingham, lies the ex- 

 tensive Bog or Moss of Creswell, in the township of 

 Middleton Hall, and belonging to its owner. It was 

 some seventy acres in extent, but has now been drained. 

 Here have been discovered embedded some few remains 

 of wild animals — not perhaps of very ancient date, yet 

 belonging to a period when these animals themselves, as 

 well as the country they inhabited, were in a very 

 different state from what they are at present. We were 

 shown some of these remains preserved at Middleton 

 Hall. There were several very fine tusks of the wild 

 boar, and a pair of the antlers of the stag with twenty- 

 one points — the greatest number now produced by the 

 red deer at Chillingham being twelve. I much regret 

 that I was not able to procure there, in consequence of 

 Mr. Hughes's absence from home, nor subsequently at 

 Wooler, any further information on this interesting 

 subject, nor even to discover whether the remains of 

 any species of Bos have ever been found there ; but my 

 informants thought not. It is much to be desired that 

 this bog, and perhaps Eobin Hood's Bog, in Chilling- 

 ham Park, should be more carefully examined; and 

 Lord Tankerville informs me that in the case of Cres- 

 well Moss this has been thought of. Probably the 

 remains of the Bos primigenius lie buried there ; and 

 not only his : perhaps those of his descendants — the 

 intermediate link between him and the Chillingham 

 bull — might be also found. The reliquiae of the 

 wild beasts that ranged the forest at the same time 

 having been . exhumed, those of the ancient Caledonian 

 wild bull may yet be discovered ; and the great pro- 



