J. WATSON : EXTINCT ANIMALS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 4 1 



Westmoreland. The valleys of that part which we now call the Lake 

 District were covered with wood, an area of eighteen miles hereabout 

 being described as ' a goodly greate forest, full of woods, red deer 

 and fallow, wild swine, and all manner of wild beasts.' These 

 extended themselves until they became merged in the greater 

 Caledonian Forest, which was still more extensive and wild. It was 

 from these woods that Bears were taken to Rome to be baited ; and 

 they also contained Wolves, Wild Boars, and Wild Cattle. 



One of the most important of the animals which existed in imme- 

 diate prehistoric times was the Urus of Caesar, gigantic remains of 

 which have been found from time to time in bogs and fluviatile 

 •deposits. Remains of this Urus (Bos primigenius) have lately been 

 found during the excavations for the Silloth New Docks, about 1 7 ft. 

 from the surface of the ground, and embedded in gravel. Part of these 

 remains consisted of an enormous humerus^ weighing nearly 6 lbs. 

 Professor Goodchild has recorded the existence, in Westmoreland, of 

 a fine specimen of a skull of a gigantic Bos^ which also belongs to 

 this species. It was dug from a moss near Brough, and is said to have 

 been one of two skulls which were found together, with their horn-cores 

 interlocked in such a way as to suggest that they were mired whilst 

 engaged in fighting. A large horn-core belonging to the same 

 gigantic species was also found in the moss next to Sunbiggen Tarn. 

 These constitute the whole of the local occurrences, the remains found 

 at Helsfell being referred to B. primigenius by mistake. That the 

 Urus was contemporaneous with man must be admitted, as relics of 

 the two have been found together in various fluviatile deposits ; and 

 this is confirmed by the fact that there exists an almost perfect skele- 

 ton of the Urus, together with a skull of the same species, in which 

 latter is embodied a Neolithic Celt (Harting). 



It still remains a mystery as to whether the Wild White Cattle of 

 this country are descended, as some aflirm, from the aboriginal wild 

 breed of the British forests — the Urus of Caesar, or whether it has, 

 at some period long remote, been imported from abroad and since 

 become feral. The weight of scientific opinion, however, seems to 

 favour the view that these wild white cattle were descended from the 

 Urus, either by direct descent through wild animals from the Wild 

 Bull, or less directly through domesticated cattle, deriving their blood 

 principally from him (Harting), But our concern is not so much 

 with the origin of the race of these cattle, as with a local herd of 

 them. This was at Naworth Castle, in Cumberland, and what little is 

 known of it is from the ' Household Book' of Lord William Howard, 

 and from the ' Sandford MS.' From these sources we gather that the 

 wild cattle were mtroduced in 1629, from Martindale Forest, near 



Feb. 1887. 



