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stags, uri, and bison were to be seen in the open country, while 

 the Irish elk and the roe were comparatively rare. Three 

 kinds of rhinooeros, and two kinds of elephants lived in the 

 forests. The hippopotamus haunted the banks of the Thames, as 

 well as the beaver, the water rat, and the otter. There were 

 wolves also, and foxes, brown bears and grisly bears, wild cats, and 

 lions of enormous size." This was all the result of physical 

 geography. And the primaeval hunter followed them all. 



It is worth while asking. What if things had remained so? 

 How different might the course of history have run if the British 

 area had continued to be merely an extension of Scandinavia to 

 the west, and of France to the north, and no Channel or North 

 Sea had ever been formed by the subsidence of the land ! " There 

 is no fact," says Professor Freeman, speaking of the original 

 migration of the Angles or English people, " there is no fact in 

 the whole history of our people more important than this, that our 

 first settlement was made in an island. No migration to any other 

 part of the continent could have had the same consequences as our 

 migration from the continent to the isle of Great Britain. Our 

 insular position determined our history, and determined our 

 national character." " As for Ireland," says Mr. Scott Keltie, 

 " her present troubles, which are also ours, are all due to St. 

 George's Channel and her own bogs. Had Ireland and England 

 been still as of yore, one continuous land, her conquest would 

 have been begun long before it was, and would have been at least 

 as complete as that of Wales and Scotland." 



And, it may be added, the infusion of Teutonic blood in that 

 Celtic island would have been far more complete ; for the succes- 

 sive hordes of invaders would not have been checked by the sea. 

 But, alas ! St. George's Channel was formed, the separation was 

 effected ; hence the Irish question, hence also the Welsh question. 

 Even our politics, you see, depend on geology. 



Long ages afterwards, the Norsemen found the Shetlands and 

 Orkneys very convenient stopping places ; hence they found their 

 way to Caithness and Sutherland (their southern land), but not 

 much further. Why not ? — Because the physical geography 

 hindered them ; all the country was covered with mountains, 

 moor, and morass, and there was little inducement to cross them. 

 Afterwards these same bogs and mountains played another 

 important part in history. The men who penetrated into the 

 Highlands by way of the east coast, or up from the south, made 

 their way through the passes to the interior, and found there 

 suitable retreats, in which they could, and did for a long time, 

 defy the attacks of other tribes, and also the authority of the 

 crown. Not only that, but the clans were able to isolate them- 

 selves within these natural boundaries, to keep separate and dis- 



