410 Pre-Historic Mammalia Associated with Man. 



in Ireland, protected by the uncultivated wilds and the misrule 

 of the country until the year 1710. 



In this outline of the pre-historic animals associated with 

 man, I have attempted to prove that the animals of the neolithic 

 and bronze ag^es in Britain are identical with those found in 

 peat-bogs and alluvia, and that the whole group so constituted 

 differs totally from the post-glacial group of animals. And I 

 have striven to show their relation to the animals now living in 

 Britain. Their comparison with the pre-historic fauna of the 

 Swiss lakes, or that of Scandinavia, Germany, France, and 

 Italy, I must leave to the savants of those countries. The 

 modification of that fauna I have shown to be the result of man's 

 influence, and I cannot help believing that the disappearance of 

 the larger animals associated with man in post-glacial times, is 

 in a measure owing to the same cause, as well as to climatal or 

 geographical change. With the larger carnivores man must 

 have waged a war of extermination ; while the larger ruminants 

 on which he fed must have found the difficulty of concealment 

 increase in proportion to their size. There is a great gulf fixed, 

 so to speak, representing an inconceivable length of time 

 between the post-glacial and pre-historic periods ; and the 

 fauna of Europe, as we have it now, dates from the latter 

 epoch. In Britain, of course, insulated from the mainland of 

 Europe, several animals probably introduced into Europe after 

 that insulation, have not been found, such as the chamois and 

 bouquetin. Had Britain been united to France during the 

 rein-deer epoch, we might have expected to find the remains of 

 those animals. 



