THE IBEX AND BEAR. 151 



Chiavenna it existed until the commencement of the seven- 

 teenth century, and in the Tyrol until the second half of the 

 eighteenth, while it still maintains itself in the mountains 

 surrounding Mont Iseran. 



The extermination of the bear, like that of the ibex, seems 

 to have begun in the East, and not yet to be complete, since 

 this animal still occurs in the Jura, in Valais, and in the 

 south-eastern parts of Switzerland. The fox, the otter, and 

 the different species of weasels, are still the common car- 

 nivora of Switzerland, and the wild cat, the badger, and the 

 wolf still occur in the Jura and the Alps, the latter in cold 

 winters venturing even into the plains. The beaver, on the 

 contrary, has at last disappeared. It had long been very 

 rare in Switzerland, but a few survived until the beginning 

 of the present century, in Lucerne and Valais. Red deer 

 were abundant in the Jura and Black "Forest in the twelfth 

 and thirteenth centuries, though they do not appear to have 

 been so large as those which lived in earlier times. The last 

 was shot in the canton of Basle, at the close of the eighteenth 

 century, while in western Switzerland and Valais they lin- 

 gered somewhat longer. The roedeer still occurs in some 

 places. 



The Fauna thus indicated is certainly very much what 

 might have been expected. We find among the remains 

 of the Lake-dwellings most of the species which characterise 

 the post- tertiary epoch in Europe. Some of the larger ones 

 have since fallen away in the struggle for existence, and 

 others are becoming rarer and rarer every year, while some 

 maintain themselves even now, thanks only to the inclemency 

 and inaccessibility of the mountainous regions which they 

 inhabit. The gradual process of extermination, which has 

 continued ever since, had even then begun. 



Taken as a whole, therefore, the animals of the Swiss Pile- 

 works belong evidently to the fauna which commenced in 



