402 W. B. DAWKINS 02^ THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE 



not merely from its existence in vast numbers in Ireland, but from 

 the fact that it is the sole survivor from the Pleistocene into the 

 Prehistoric age which has since become extinct. It is rarely met 

 with in Britain. The true elk was also rare, but has been met 

 with in several localities in the bogs of JSTorthumberland, Yorkshire, 

 and Scotland. In the south it is described by Prof. Owen from 

 "Walthamstow, where it was associated with the goat, Celtic short- 

 horn, and reindeer. The last animal is rare in England, and com- 

 paratively abundant in Scotland and Ireland. It has not been 

 found in Prehistoric deposits further south than the valley of the 

 Thames. The Urus was comparatively abundant in Prehistoric 

 Britain, and it was hunted by the Neolithic men who excavated 

 the chalk for the sake of the flint in Cissbury Camp. It survived at 

 least as late as the Bronze age, since its remains occur in a refuse- 

 heap of that age in Barton Mere, near Bury St. Edmunds *. It 

 was probably exterminated in Britain before the close of the Pre- 

 historic period, while it found a secure shelter from man in the 

 forests covering Central Germany as late as the sixteenth century. 



The domestic animals introduced by the Neolithic farmers consist 

 of the dog, horned sheep, goat, Celtic short-horned ox, and hog, 

 some of which, such as the short-horned ox, the marsh-hog, and the 

 goat, escaped from the servitude of man, and reverted to a wild 

 state in the forests as yet untouched by the woodman's axe. The 

 domestic horse also may have been introduced in a state of domesti- 

 cation ; but it may have been descended from those so abundant in 

 Britain in the Pleistocene age. 



24. The Historic Mammalia of the British Isles. 



It remains for us to consider, in conclusion, the more important 

 changes in the fauna of the Historic period, or that period of which 

 the written record is preserved, and which may be said to begin in 

 Britain with the landing of Julius Csesar, e.g. 5b. The chief points 

 to be noted are the absence of the Irish elk and of the true elk and 

 urus from the British fauna. The reindeer still lingered in the 

 north of Scotland, and was used for food by the dwellers in the 

 burgs of Caithness, in which district it was hunted by the Earls of 

 Orkney in the year 1159. The extinction of some and the in- 

 troduction of other animals into Britain enable us to divide the 

 Historic period in the same manner as the preceding divisions of 

 the Tertiary have been made ; and the following Table, taken from 

 my work on Cave-hunting, gives an outline of the priucipal of 

 these changes t. 



* Proc. of Suffolk Inst, of Arch£eoL and Nat. Hist. June 1869. 



t The authorities for these facts and dates are given in my 'Prehminary 

 Treatise, British Pleistocene Mammalia/ Palaeontological Society, 1878, chapters 

 ii. and iii. 



