42 J. WATSON : EXTINCT ANIMALS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 



Thornthwaite, where at that time (Mr. Harting suggests) they probably 

 roamed in a state of nature. The herd, however, did not remain here 

 very long, for in 1675 it had ceased to exist, having been destroyed, 

 it is suggested, during the Parliamentary Wars. Sandford describes 

 Naworth as formerly having about it ' pleasant woods and gardens ; 

 ground full of fallow deer, feeding on all somer tyme ; brave venison 

 pasties, and great stores of reed deer on the mountains, and white 

 ivild cattle with black ears 07ily, on the m cores . . . .' 



The next nearest herds to us were those at Barnard Castle and 

 Bishop Auckland, in Durham ; Drumlanrig Castle, Dumfriesshire ; 

 Hoghton Tower, Middleton Park, and Whalley Abbey, in Lanca- 

 shire ; and Burton Constable and Gisburne Park, in Yorkshire. 



It need hardly be said that the wild cattle were white, with black 

 ears and muzzles, many of them having shaggy manes. 



Before coming to the other members of our great extinct fauna, 

 it may be well to diverge for a moment to look at the primitive 

 forests in which the animals lived. It is difficult at this length of 

 time to reahse the physical constitution of the Lake District when 

 there roamed over it the animals next to be enumerated. Its utter 

 wildness, its wastes, its shaggy woods, its morasses and far-spreading 

 forests made its unreclaimed area a terror and a dread to the few 

 travellers of the times. In a word, it was one vast forest and fell. 

 On the banks of the more secluded streams the timid Beaver con- 

 structed its dam, and on the hills pastured the Wild White Cattle of 

 the period. Vast herds of Deer of three species trooped through the 

 tangled woods, and on the margins of the reedy meres wallowed Wild 

 Boars. Somewhat earlier the Bear had kept the rocky fastnesses of 

 the mountain side, and even now the skulking Wolf was a roaming 

 marauder — a terrifier of the primitive folk who a little later took up 

 their abode in those early unreclaimed wilds. This state of things 

 obtained at a time when the creatures enumerated held almost un- 

 disputed sway. The forests for the most part flanked the mountain 

 ranges, stretching sometimes to their summits. Many of them were 

 impenetrable ; and especially does this refer to the tangled woods of 

 the valleys. The chases, the forests of which they were part, the 

 swamps and morasses, constituted three-fourths of our local area ; 

 and from our present location and onward to the Borders, formed 

 perhaps the wildest forests of all. It is essential to refer to this state 

 of things for the better understanding of the subject. To return 

 again to the animals. 



There was discovered some years back (Goodchild), in alluvium, 

 at the bottom of the Ressondale Valley, the skull of an adult Beaver. 

 The value of the ' bear ' finds has been referred to, but this, perhaps, 



Naturalist, 



