REVIEWS. 
167 
ordinary mortals, may seem unattractive enough, hut upon which he dwells 
with sentimental yearnings. ‘ Packs of wolves,’ he says, ‘ which usually 
issued forth at night to ravage the herdsman’s flocks, were ever ready to 
attack the solitary herdsman, or unwary traveller on foot, who might venture 
to pass within reach of their hiding-places. In the oak woods and amongst 
the reed-beds which fringed the meres, wild boars lurked Many a 
traveller then had cause to rue the sudden and unexpected rush of some 
grand old patriarch of the 11 sownder,” who, with gnashing tusks, charged 
out upon the invader of his domain, occasionally unhorsing him, and not 
unfrequently inflicting severe injuries upon his steed.’ 
Degenerate Britons of the present day may, perhaps, be glad to compound 
for the absence of such wild beasts as the wolf, the bear, and the wild boar, 
by their freedom from the chance of finding any such excitements as the 
above when journeying from town to town on foot or on horseback; but the 
enthusiasm that prompts the author of this book to express his regret that 
the wild beasts, with all their inconvenient habits, have passed away from 
our country, may serve to give the reader an assurance that no pains have 
been spared by him in its preparation. It is difficult, as he justly says, to 
realize the state of things above indicated, 1 unless we consider at the same 
time the aspect and condition of the country in which these animals lived, 
and the remarkable physical changes which have since taken place.’ Half 
the country, at least, was forest, or wild, uncultivated ground, and in the 
disappearance of this state of things the naturalist can hardly avoid finding 
some cause of regret, hundreds of organisms, both animal and vegetable, must 
have succumbed to the progress of cultivation and the spread of population, 
which have now attained such a pitch that one has to travel a considerable 
distance from London, at any rate, in order to find a bit of undisturbed land. 
How different from the condition of things some six or seven centuries ago, 
when the forests came up almost to the gates of London, and the churches 
in certain cities lighted beacons on their towers to guide belated travellers 
through the waste outside. 
Five mammals, which have become extinct in Britain within the 
historical period, are here recorded by Mr. Harting, namely, the Bear, 
the Beaver, the Reindeer, the Wild Boar, and the Wolf. On the last-named 
animal Mr. Harting contributed a long article to this Revieio some years 
ago. It is treated here very much in the same manner, but with consider- 
able additional information. The Bear, as a British animal, does not seem 
to have been abundant in the southern parts of the country within historic times ; 
but there is no doubt that it existed in England and Wales at least as late as the 
middle of the eighth century. In Scotland it seems to have survived till the 
tenth century. Its presence in Ireland as a native animal is doubtful, except 
from fossil evidence. The Beaver, remains of which are not very uncommon 
in peaty soils in the fenlands and elsewhere in England, seems to have sur- 
vived till the end of the twelfth century in Wales, and to a much later period 
in Scotland. In the latter country there is somewhat doubtful testimony to 
its occurrence as late as the sixteenth century. The historical evidence of 
the existence of the Reindeer in Britain is still more scanty, and rests princi- 
pally upon a statement in an Icelandic Saga to the effect that the Jarls of 
Orkney were in the habit of crossing to Caithness in the summer to hunt 
