130 



The Irish Naturalist, 



November, 



with Great Britain. It is assumed also that the latter 

 country was united by land with the continent. The two 

 islands would then have formed together a great promontory 

 of the continent. These ideas were considered as altogether 

 modern, and it was never dreamt of that an Irish monk 

 could have held those views more than a thousand years 

 ago. Yet such is the fact. 



Augustine continues on page 2730 : — 



" Unde etiam insulas quae ab initio conditi orbis ut multi affirmant 

 non fuerant, processu temporis faciunt, dum propinqua promontoria 

 marini finibus a continenti terra dividunt." 



I would take this sentence to mean that although many 

 writers asserted that islands did not originally exist they 

 no doubt were formed by promontories becoming detached 

 from the mainland through marine action. In this manner 

 he explains how animals which were originally members of 

 a continental fauna came to be found on islands. 



" Per quod intelligitur, quod illae ferae quae insularum orbibus 

 includuntur non ; humana diligentia devectae, sed in ilia divisione 

 insularum a continenti terra repertae esse probantur. Quis enim, verbi 

 gratia, lupos, cervos et sylvaticos porcos, et vulpes, taxones et lepusculos 

 et sesquivolos in Hiberniam deveheret ? " 



I beheve I am right in translating these two sentences 

 as follows : — It must therefore be assumed that the wild 

 animals now found on islands have not been conveyed 

 there by human agency. Who indeed could have brought 

 wolves, deer, wild swine, foxes, badgers and little hares to 

 Ireland ? x\ugustine was evidently not in favour of the 

 view, maintained by some writers until quite recently, that 

 the Irish fauna was introduced by man. Fortunately he 

 had heard nothing about the Glacial Period which, according 

 to some geologists, completely \\dped out the previously 

 existing animals of Ireland. The passage in Augustine's 

 writings is of importance as a contribution to Irish natural 

 history in showing that six kinds of large animals inhabited 

 Ireland when he wrote this account in the year 655. Wolves 

 and wild swine are now extinct in Ireland. Deer no longer 

 roam about the country, although it is believed that some 

 of the descendants of the old wild stock still Hve in the 



