EXTIRPATED QUADRUPEDS. 
295 
gard, and those which are peculiarly its own cannot 
fail to be contemplated with much interest. 
The Quadrupeds of Dartmoor, though now re¬ 
duced to a small number, were formerly pretty 
numerous. The following are recorded as its ancient 
inhabitants,—the Wolf , the Brown Bear, the Boar , 
the Wild Ox, the RedDeer, th eElk and the Wild Cat. 
The Wolf appears to have become extinct on Dart¬ 
moor about the close of the reign of Elizabeth. It 
was a pure native of our country and required great 
exertions for its removal. The Bear seems to have 
been extirpated in the eleventh century, and unless 
its food consisted chiefly of vegetable productions 
it is difficult to understand how its existence could 
have been maintained. The Boar and Wild Ox 
have been taken under the protection of man, and 
the date of extirpation of the wild stock is not re¬ 
corded. That noble animal the Red Deer was until 
within the last fifty years pretty common in the 
remote wooded districts of the county ; its race too 
has undergone extirpation in a very gradual manner. 
“ Sometimes, but rarely, one has been perceived 
near Ashburton,” and it is not more than three 
years since that I saw an account in a paper of the 
chase of one near that town, it having unfortunately 
been espied in some coppice. It is quite reason¬ 
able to suppose that the Goat was a native or 
rather a frequenter of this district so perfectly 
congenial in aspect to its nature. All these 
were most likely found in a less degree throughout 
the woods and wilds that lie to the south of 
Dartmoor, but by increase of population and ag- 
culture they were no doubt soon removed from 
these spots and eventually their limits restric¬ 
ted to the Moor itself.* But here also they 
* One such spot where these wild animals abided was Berry 
Head, as appears by the discovery of numerous teeth of the Boar 
