# The Zoologist/3rd series, vol 1 (1877)/Issue 4/Ancient and Extinct British Quadrupeds

Published in: The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1, issue 4 (April, 1877), p. 121–149
THE ZOOLOGIST
THIRD SERIES.
* Vol. I.]APRIL, 1877.[No. 4.
ANCIENT AND EXTINCT BRITISH QUADRUPEDS.
By A. Leith Adams, M.D., F.R.S.
Any account of the quadrupeds which frequented the British Islands in bygone ages and before historic times would be imperfect without a brief allusion to the physical conditions of the country during the period of their existence. My observations on that head, however, will be confined to the vast epoch which has elapsed since the close of what is known as the glacial period, when Europe was emerging from the white sheet which for unreckoned ages had clad it, from the Pole to the Mediterranean, in ice and snow. The proofs of this curious episode in the history of the earth are as clear as is the existence of glaciers at the present day. It is, moreover, evident, that the cold period came on suddenly, and, as regards the British Islands, at a time when the physical aspect of the country—at least, as regards the main features of the landscape—did not materially differ from what is now observed. The land was then inhabited by quadrupeds, some of which were identical with species now living, although many afterwards became extinct, and did not reappear. This has been named the pre-glacial period, when our climate was perhaps somewhat milder than it is at ​present. During the subsequent glacial epoch the whole of the British islands, including portions since submerged, were clothed in an eternal winter mantle, partly snow and partly in the form of glaciers, which moved down from the high to the low lands, carrying with them rocks and débris of all kinds to form fresh deposits.
The remains of the animals in question have been preserved chiefly in caves or in river deposits. The limestone caverns, in which they are found, usually present the following appearances:—On the floor there is a bed of calcareous drippings hardened into a substance known as stalagmite. Under the latter may be seen successive layers of clay and stalagmite of various thickness. Sometimes the osseous remains are found on the floor of the rock simply embedded in the stalagmite. The various levels formed by an alternation of cave-earth or clay and drippings may represent various stages in the history of a cave. For instance, on the surface flint tools, fashioned by man, together with bones of the Red Deer and Oxen, may be found; in the second layer may be discovered the remains of herbivorous quadrupeds and of Lions and Elephants, the larger bones showing evident traces of having been gnawed by predaceous animals. Under those conditions, it may be surmised that the cave was originally a den of carnivorous animals, which had dragged in the bones of their prey, until the surface, getting gradually covered over by stalagmitic drippings, became eventually the resort of man. Of course the absence of traces of his presence is no proof that he may not have been contemporary with the lions in the second deposit; at the same time, we are not justified in admitting his presence unless we find the bones of domestic animals, flint tools, or other relics of man mingled in the same stratum. As to the age of these two deposits, they may or may not represent long periods; much depends on the rapidity or otherwise of the influx of the cave-earth, either through rock-fissures or by the aid of streams, which convey large quantities of soil into underground caverns; whilst the extent of dripping of the lime-water from the roof and sides, and its hardening, depend entirely on circumstances; for a cave may get filled to the top in a comparatively short time, or its filling may be the work of ages. In either case some covering of the bones must take place before they have time to decay, as they otherwise would do if left uncovered. It is wonderful how little stalagmite is required to preserve a bone; a mere crust, not ​the thickness of a shilling, will often suffice to preserve the thighbone of an Elephant. It is now generally supposed that many of the rivers of our southern and eastern coasts are but the head-waters of what were once much larger rivers before the severance of the islands from the mainland of Europe. The Thames is thought to have been one of the tributaries of the Rhine; and, as will be noticed in the sequel, it is seldom that oyster-dredging is prosecuted with vigour on the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk without quantities of bones of extinct quadrupeds being brought to the surface. When the separation in question took place is not altogether clear; that England and Europe were united, however, at the close of the glacial epoch seems pretty certain, else how could such animals as the Elephant and the Lion have reached the British Islands? The probability is that there was a highway at the Straits of Dover, which may have disappeared before the Lions and Elephants died out on British soil.
With the thaw of the glacial period the rivers doubtless became, then and long afterwards, subject to constant inundations, which covered large tracts of country, and formed deposits of sand, loam and clay, in which the animal remains are now found. London, for example, is built on deposits of the ancient Thames; and in many other situations where insignificant streams now exist, the banks are made up of vast beds of débris stretching inland, and containing the bones of both extinct and living animals. Again, deep in the brick-earths of the Thames Valley, at Clacton, Ilford, Grays (Essex), and Crayford, remains representing herds of giant Oxen, Deer, Elephants, Rhinoceroses, &c., have been discovered from time to time, indicating that they had probably been drowned and carried down by inundations of the Thames. In the nature of the animal remains there is a general accord with those of river-bottoms and of the caves, thus showing that they were of the same geological period. But in the brick-earths, or lowermost strata of rivers, it sometimes happens that remains of animals are found distinct from any other species found in the upper beds and in the caves; in consequence, it has been surmised that the brick-earths may have been deposited during pre-glacial times, and therefore contain the animals of that epoch. Some idea of the animals which frequented Wales, South and South-Western England, the Thames Valley, Yorkshire, and the South of Ireland may be gathered from the following:—
In several caverns in Glamorganshire remains of man have been ​found, associated with bones of the Rhinoceros, Spotted Hyæna, Badger, Ermine (or Stoat), Polecat, Wolf, Fox, Otter, Grisly Bear, Brown Bear and Great Cave Bear, Reindeer, Roebuck, Red Deer, Bison, Urus (or Giant Ox), Hippopotamus, Pig, Horse, two species of Elephants, Hare, Rabbit, Water Rat, Cat, Lion, and Great-horned Deer. In the Devonshire caves the same animals, with the addition of the Sabre-toothed Lion and the Lemming. In the brick-earths and deposits of the Thames an exact repetition of the first have been found, with the addition of the Beaver. The celebrated cavern of Kirkdale was a den of Hyænas, where nearly all the animals of the other caves were found, thus showing a very general distribution throughout the country. The only Irish cave or river deposit at all fruitful was the cavern of Shandon, in the county of Waterford, where remains of the Mammoth, Elephant, Horse, Reindeer, Red Deer, Grisly Bear, Wolf, Fox and Hare were found associated. Scotland, not possessing many limestone caverns, and the Highlands being of granitic formations, together possibly with the effects of a rigorous climate during the period when the quadrupeds in question were living in England, may account for the absence of remains of any save the Wolf, Mammoth and Reindeer, although others may remain to be discovered.
I now propose to note a few of the more interesting details which geologists have brought to light concerning the various species of animals which formerly inhabited the British Islands, but which are now either extinct or only exist in a few localities and in greatly diminished numbers.
The Brown Bear is one of the few extinct British beasts which survived up to the historical period, and, although it had disappeared probably for centuries beforehand in England, we have it on excellent authority that it was common on the Scotch Highlands as late as the middle of the eleventh century. The date of its existence in Ireland is not recorded; indeed, as will be presently shown, there are doubts if the Brown Bear (Ursus arctos) ​was a native of that island. It was, however, generally distributed over Central and Northern Europe, and it still lingers on the Eastern Alps and in Russia, and is spread over Northern Asia, and probably also the boreal regions of North America. In the colour of the fur, and also in size, in different countries it is subject to considerable variation, so that naturalists considered the individuals from Norway, Syria, the Himalayas, and Siberia as so many distinct species. If the mere external coloration, however, and a few other minor points be disregarded, it will be found that the bony skeletons of all agree in characters which, as compared with other bears, at once place them in the same category with the typical Brown Bear (U. arctos). In regard to size, the skulls and bones dug up in the fens, peat-bogs, and superficial deposits in England certainly belonged to large individuals, but not larger than many now inhabiting different parts of Europe and Asia.
Not only does historical evidence, accompanied by the discovery of its bones in peat and alluvium, point to the existence of the Brown Bear in unrecorded times, but we find its bones, associated with those of at all events very much larger species, in the caverns and deep soils of England; moreover, seeing that the remains in either case represent very old individuals, and that the teeth and bones differ in many respects, there is good cause to believe in the former existence in Great Britain of at least two species of Bear.
The Great Bear of the caverns and the Brown Bear were therefore contemporaneous. As to the former, on arranging and comparing exuviæ collected in Great Britain and on the Continent with bones of living species, it has been found that they admit of division into three, or at least two, distinct forms. One agrees with the skeleton of the Grisly Bear, now chiefly found in the Rocky Mountains and western prairies; the other (Ursus spelæus) and perhaps a third (U. priscus) have no living representatives, and may therefore be considered as having become extinct in Great Britain long before the historical period. But the Grisly Bear, as far as is known, seems to have disappeared likewise about the same time.
The Ursus priscus was the giant of all. Although not rare in England, it appears to have been very common in Southern France and in the Pyrenees, judging from the quantities of bones discovered in the caves and soils. It would appear that, irrespective ​of larger dimensions, this Great Cave Bear was distinct from the Grisly, or else an unusual variation in regard to bulk and certain osteological characters obtained in the Grisly Bear of ancient Britain. Compared individually, the Brown, Grisly and Cave Bears stood in much the same relative height as the Shetland pony, Galloway, and dray horse.
The geographical distribution of these bears over the British Isles, so far as is known, seems to indicate that the largest form was restricted to England, and that the Grisly was also common in Ireland, where no certain remains of the Brown Bear have been yet discovered.
The Cave Bear no doubt was the first to disappear, followed by the Grisly, whilst the Brown Bear survived to within historical times. All were contemporaneous here long after the separation of Great Britain from the Continent, and gradually died off, it may be from failure of food or through human agency. Looking to the habits and food of living species, it is apparent that the Bear would survive the Lion, for the reason that it is not entirely dependent on flesh for its subsistence, but will eat vegetable food—indeed, many species prefer it to animal food; consequently the Lion may have died of starvation in Great Britain when the Deer and other prey became very scarce. No doubt failure of food has brought about the extinction of many species, and in the case of the British Islands, even supposing man had not appeared on the scene, the severance from the Continent must have initiated a struggle for existence among the larger quadrupeds, of which the fittest only would survive. The great Cave Bear and the Grisly, not to mention the Lion and Hyæna, must have been formidable enemies to the deer and wild oxen; indeed, the probabilities are that none of the former survived long after the separation from the mainland.
That man played a considerable part in exterminating the bear tribe is proved by the arrows, spears, and hatchets of stone which have been discovered in several caverns either overlying the remains in question or associated with them. But, although man contributed to the extinction of many species, it is probable that ​these wild beasts enjoyed a long freedom before he appeared on the scene. How the thick hides were pierced by arrow- or spear-points made of stone, and how man with such weapons could have held his own against powerful and ferocious bears and lions, seems a mystery when we think of the ferocity of the degenerate descendants of these animals. It is, moreover, a curious circumstance not easily explained that, whilst the tiger and lion are daily destroying human beings, we find no indications of man among the gnawed bones so plentifully distributed throughout the ancient caverns and dens of the post-glacial epoch. The only explanation would seem to be that the larger carnivorous quadrupeds found ample subsistence among the lower animals during the cave period without preying on the lords of creation.
The Glutton, now a native of the Arctic Regions of the Old and New Worlds, was contemporary with the Bears, and sought its fortunes on British soil. Its bones have been discovered in caverns and deep soils in England, but the date of its extinction is so far shrouded in obscurity.
The Badger is the sole remaining representative of the Bear family which still lingers in our islands. Like the Glutton, it existed with the Bears, but was not so plentiful, if we may judge from the few bones which have hitherto been discovered.
The Ermink, Polecat, Beech Marten and Otter can be traced back to the days when the large carnivores and elephantine quadrupeds lived in our islands; and it would appear that, in point of size, individuals of the ancient race did not greatly surpass their modern representatives. It seems probable, moreover, that in all cases where quadrupeds, from early epochs, have remained unchanged in point of size, although confined within narrower geographical limits, they have continued to enjoy abundance of their natural food. At the same time it is the fact that several animals, as the Bear and Elephant, present to a greater extent individual variations in size, according to the favourable or inimical conditions under which they have happened to be placed. These are points of great importance to the naturalist, especially when attempting to trace back the history of extinct animals by a comparison of their remains with those of living species.
There is no sufficient reason for believing that such animals as the Lion, Elephant, or Rhinoceros did not frequent cold regions. The short-haired Tiger of Bengal is replaced by a woolly-haired Tiger in northern China; and in the frozen soil of Siberia discoveries of entire carcases of Elephants and Rhinoceroses clad in dense fur coats prove the exception to the general rule with reference to the outer covering of their living representatives. The fossil Lion, like the large fossil Bear and Hyæna, was long considered to be distinct from any living species, but recent discoveries and comparisons have indicated the closest relationship between the living and the dead. Vestiges of the Lion have been discovered in nearly twenty British caverns, as well as in the deposits of rivers; associated in the former case with remains of Bears, Elephants, Rhinoceroses and other herbivorous animals, as well as with Hyænas. In fact, the Lion was one of the earliest sojourners in the land after the glacial period had commenced to decline.
A Leopard or Panther, apparently not larger than existing species, also roamed over England in company with the preceding. ​If its numbers can be at all estimated from the remains which have been discovered in caverns and river deposits, it is clear that this feline animal was not common; the likelihood may have been that it had no chance with its more formidable rivals just mentioned, who monopolised more or less their common prey.
The Lynx, which is still resident in many parts of the Continent, was also a native of pre-historic England, but hitherto its remains have only been discovered in a single locality.
The Wild Cat, although now very local in its distribution, still lingers on the scene where its progenitors lived with the Lion, Bear, Wolf, and other carnivorous animals. On comparing the skeleton of the ancient British Wild Cat with that of a recent individual, no difference is observable, for the reason probably that birds and rabbits, its natural prey, have abundantly supplied its necessities; it has, however, been gradually destroyed, or driven back to a few remaining strongholds, by civilized man.
The Hyæna, which frequented Great Britain in pre-historic times, and contemporaneously with the extinct bears, was of larger dimensions than any species now living, although it is now generally regarded as the progenitor of the Spotted Hyæna.
The Spotted Hyæna, as we may call it, was at one time very common in England, but does not seem to have existed either in Ireland or the Highlands of Scotland. A graphic description of one of its numerous dens is given by Dr. Buckland, who, in referring to the contents of Kirkdale Cave, Yorkshire, likens the floor to a dog-kennel, where gnawed fragments of the bones of Elephants, Rhinoceroses, Bears, Lions, and herbivorous quadrupeds were strewn about among the remains of no less than three hundred Hyænas, the droppings (coprolites) of which were also met with in profusion. This ancient den must have been used by them for a very long period, and, considering that the remains of no less than twenty different species of animals were discovered there, it may be surmised that, at all events, there was a great variety of quadrupeds in the woods and wolds of Yorkshire in those days. Although the Hyæna does not refuse flesh in a fresh state, it prefers a putrid carcase; and its powerful jaws and strong ​conical teeth, surrounded at the base of the crown by a belt of enamel, are eminently adapted for crunching bones, for which it has a predilection. It is a sneaking and cowardly animal, and on any show of resistance by its intended victim will hesitate and even retire. Remains of the Spotted Hyæna have been found in upwards of thirty different caverns in England, and generally in such abundance, as compared with other bones, as to show that it was plentifully distributed over the low lands and forests of ancient Britain. The reason for its absence from Ireland, as before noticed, is not clear; unless, perhaps, there was no direct highway between the two islands, as there was between England and the European continent. Moreover, it may be that the country was not sufficiently inviting, although large game, such as the Reindeer and the so-called Irish Elk, abounded. At all events, not a trace of the Hyæna has as yet been found in Ireland, and there are no authentic accounts of any such remains from Scotland, which, as far as the northern parts were concerned, was then doubtless more or less clad in snow and ice. Again, the habits of the Spotted Hyæna, as now known, show that it is not a beast of the mountains, but of the plains.
All the quadrupeds which have lingered on in Great Britain to within historical times were evidently sooner exterminated in England than elsewhere. The Wolf furnishes an instance. It was quite a scourge in various parts of Ireland and Scotland during the seventeenth century, especially in the former country, where a breed of wolf dogs was carefully preserved. This race of dogs is now also extinct. It resembled the Scotch Deerhound, but the skull was more wolf-like, so that there is now some difficulty in distinguishing the one from the other. Traces of old circular entrenchments, into which cattle, sheep, and goats were driven for protection from wolves, are still met with in abundance in many parts of Ireland, especially in the southern counties. Unlike other extinct British beasts, the Wolf apparently has not deteriorated in size, for the fossil bones which have been discovered are not larger, nor in any way to be distinguished from those of European Wolves of the present day.
​When Hyænas and Lions roamed over England, the Wolf was apparently the only large carnivore in Ireland. From this circumstance it has been argued that Ireland was detached from Europe before England and Scotland; or, what may have been more likely, that the physical conditions of the former were not suited to the habits of the animal. Indeed, the apparent anomaly might be explained by comparisons with recent species. Thus, the Brown Wolf, although met with along the lowland valleys of the European and the Asiatic Alps, is not found on the high mountains; and on various parts of the Himalayas Bears, Deer, Ibex, &c., may abound on one range and not on the adjoining one, although apparently equally inviting. To the naturalist who traces back the history of animals into the unrecorded past it is important to know the habits and haunts of living species, and especially their general and particular distribution, inasmuch as the finding of fossil remains in abundance in one situation, and the absence of such remains in another, might lead to the belief that the localities represent two different stages in the earth's history. Moreover, many wild animals repel other species from their haunts. It is said that few of the large quadrupeds frequent districts resorted to by the African Elephant, in consequence of his nocturnal habits and the disturbance he creates in his wanderings; and the Ibex and Great-horned Goat of the Himalayas monopolise whole ranges, and maintain the sovereignty against all other ruminants.
The Wolf must have fed sumptuously in Ireland among the herds of Reindeer and the Great-horned Deer which abounded in that country, seeing that it had no rival, such as the Lion, Panther, or Hyæna, to dispute its rights; indeed, naturalists have surmised that the finding of the skeletons of herds of the latter in the mud of ancient lakes in Ireland indicates that the animals had been driven into the mire by packs of Wolves. We can well imagine the enactment of such a scene as the "Race for Life," so artistically pourtrayed in Mr. Joseph Wolf's 'Wild Animals,' on many a tarn of ancient Ireland, before the formation of the peat.
The Arctic Fox has been but lately added to the ancient British fauna, whilst the Common Fox, as one of a few privileged species, has contrived to maintain its footing in the country to the present day.
The Great-horned, or Gigantic Deer, was unquestionably one of the most magnificent quadrupeds that ever trod the face of our planet. A full-grown stag, standing erect, measured from ten feet to twelve feet from the ground to the summit of the antlers, the spread of which covered over ten feet; with such a span, it has often been a matter of wonder how the animal could proceed through the forest, unless, as the Red Deer often does, it constantly dipped the antlers, which in case of pursuit would greatly impede its progress. Hence the supposition is that it fed more in the open, along the bare hill-sides and by the margins of lakes. The first entire skeleton was discovered in the Isle of Man about 1825; subsequently larger and more perfect skeletons were found in Ireland, and, almost without exception, in the shell marl and clay underlying the bogs. We believe we are correct in stating that no remains of the Great-horned Deer have yet been found in the peat, which shows that the animal must have died out before the moss and other water plants commenced to form on the lakes. Notwithstanding the discovery of several thousand heads and bones of this Deer, they afford no indication that man was contemporary with it, and old Irish literature has been ransacked in vain for evidence on this point.
It was, however, contemporary with the Reindeer in England and Ireland, where remains of the two have been found associated, whether through chance or choice; and there is no doubt that the animal was at one time extremely common in the sister isle—so plentiful, indeed, that there are few peat bogs which have not produced exuviæ.
During the summer of 1875 no less than thirty skeletons huddled together were exhumed from underlying clay in the bog of Killegar, among the Dublin mountains, whilst in the same situation (both instances occurring in an area of not a hundred yards by twenty) in 1847 as many as thirty more heads of this Stag were found. However the deer perished—whether by getting mired when ​crossing the lake, or when feeding along the margin, or on being driven there by wolves—it is clear that entire herds were destroyed at the same time. The above is only one of many such instances. Amongst the heads found at Killegar in 1847 were two with interlocked antlers. Another and similar instance is recorded from a bog near Limerick, so that it would seem that many deer lost their lives in mortal encounter along the sides of lakes.
The objection to this deer being called an Elk is the obvious dissimilarity in the form of the antler in the true Elk and so-called Irish Elk. The former had neither brow nor bez antler; for a long time they were confounded, although, when the difference is pointed out, a glance is sufficient to distinguish them. The weight of the heaviest skull and horns of the Elk seldom exceeds 55 ℔s., and the extreme breadth across the latter is about 70 inches; whereas many dried specimens of its Irish congener weigh upwards of 90 ℔s., and give a horizontal measurement of antlers of as much as 120 inches. The great ugly skull and short neck of the Elk, allowing the antlers to be easily thrown back on the withers, contrast with the small handsome head and long serpentine but powerful neck of the Great-horned Deer. The delicately formed limbs of the latter are unlike the large-boned extremities of the former; in fact, the entire aspect of the latter shows a rare combination of great strength and agility, not equalled in any living species of the family. Although no remains of this deer have been found in conjunction with those of other wild denizens of Ireland, excepting the Reindeer, the probability is that, like the latter, it was a contemporary of the Bear, Horse, and Mammoth. Its remains have turned up in about twelve different English caverns, and in various river deposits, associated in several instances with bones of the large Carnivora and other extinct quadrupeds, showing that it had a place in the ancient British fauna at an early period. Nowhere, however, does it seem to have been so plentiful as in Ireland. This has been accounted for, as before observed, by the paucity of carnivorous quadrupeds, and of ​such blood-thirsty enemies as the Lion, the Hyæna, and the Bear. In all probability the sharp-pointed antlers ably resisted the attacks of the packs of Wolves which doubtless hung on the flanks and rear of the herd to pull down the young and weakly.
A few years ago, under a bog in county Longford, several bones of the Giant Deer were discovered, in which were deep incisions, as if made by man; indeed, had there not been a ready explanation to the contrary, the appearances were almost conclusive in regard to the artificial nature of the indentations, which resembled the clean cuts made by an axe or hunting-knife. On the shaft of a thigh-bone, close beside it, and fitting into the incision, was the sharp, angular side of the shaft of a tibia, or leg-bone, of the same animal. The quaking or constant up-and-down movement of the mud of the bog for ages, under the successive influences of heat and cold, had caused the tibia to cut deeply into the thigh-bone, and so imitate the appearance of a clean incision by some sharpedged implement. But, although there are no records of the contemporaneous existence of this Deer and man in Ireland, there are caverns, such as Brixham, Kent's Cavern, and Wokey Hole in Somersetshire, where stone implements of man have been found in proximity with its remains. Many of its bones found in Irish bogs contain marrow, and blaze freely when burned. The small value put on them in times past may be gathered from the fact that the intelligence of the Battle of Waterloo was celebrated in a village in county Antrim by a bonfire of the bones of this animal, while its great horns were often used to form garden fences.
The freshness of the remains, allowing for the excellent preserving influence of the marl, would seem to indicate that the decease of the Giant Deer is of more recent date than that of many of its congeners, and yet, so far as Ireland is concerned, man does not seem to have contributed in any way towards its extermination.
The former existence of the Elk or Moose in the forests of ancient Britain has been inferred from several discoveries. On one occasion portions of its remains were found in the cave of Llandebie, in Wales, in proximity with remains of the Brown Bear. It is not probable, however, that the Elk was very plentiful in this country, although still not uncommon in Norway, and generally distributed over Canada; it is evident that no deer ​could have sojourned for ages in a country without leaving behind them traces of their former existence, not only in their cast antlers, but on account of the fact that they were much more numerous than the Carnivora which prey upon them.
The Fallow Deer, a native of Southern Europe, and still met with in several islands of the Mediterranean and elsewhere, has, on the discovery of a single horn in the mud of the Thames at Clacton, been supposed to have inhabited Great Britain in the days of the elephants, bears, and other animals of the post-glacial period.
The Reindeer was one of the earliest arrivals on British soil after the ice and snow of the glacial epoch began to disappear. It must have been very common in England and Ireland, and perhaps also in Scotland—at all events, after the great glaciers began to recede. Remains of the animal have been discovered in thirty caverns and in as many river deposits throughout England, and in Irish caverns, and in shell marl under Irish bogs and Scottish lakes. It is still plentifully distributed over the boreal regions of Europe, Asia, and America, but varies considerably in dimensions, and somewhat in the appearance of the antlers, in different countries; indeed, as regards height and weight, there are remarkable peculiarities in different regions. Thus the Reindeer of Lapland is small, as compared with the Siberian and Newfoundland forms; the former stands about three feet five inches, whilst the latter is on an average four feet two inches at the withers, their weights respectively being often 90 ℔s. and 300 ℔s. There is no evidence to show when the Reindeer disappeared from the British Isles, but it was contemporary with the Lion, Hyæna, and Elephant, and lingered on until the advent of man, whose flint tools have been discovered in the same deposits which contain its bones. The fossil remains, as compared with the bones of recent varieties, such as the Caribou or Great Woodland Reindeer of of Canada and the smaller forms of Northern Europe, approach, in the rounded beam and large brow antler and dimensions of bones, to the Norwegian and Lapland Reindeers, which are probably direct descendants of the old British stock; so that the ​ancient Reindeer of Great Britain was not relatively so large as many individuals now living. The bones found in English caverns, and that of Shandon, in Ireland, were fragmentary, and had evidently been dragged there by predaceous animals. There are, however, two splendid heads, almost entire, from the bog marls now in the museum of the Royal Dublin Society, one of which has been already referred to in connection with the discovery of the skulls and bones of the Giant Deer; the other, and more perfect of the two, is from a neighbouring locality among the Dublin mountains.
As known to us at the present time, the Reindeer is associated with an Arctic climate. It is, however, still not uncommon in North America as far south as New Brunswick, and was even common lately in the forests of New England, latitude 40°. But doubtless the climate of our islands in former days was much colder than at present; indeed, the same may be said of Central Europe, inasmuch as Reindeer remains have been found in the caverns of the South of France.
There are no ruminating animals more given to extensive migration than many varieties of the living Reindeers of North America and Asia, so that their northern and southern limits frequently include many degrees of latitude. They are easily hunted down, and consequently soon exterminated from particular tracts.
The Red Deer, like the Roebuck, the Mole, and the Water Rat, is one of the few survivors of the extensive list of mammals which inhabited Great Britain during the Pliocene epoch—i.e. the epoch which immediately preceded the glacial period. Their pedigrees, therefore, are as ancient as any in the land—at all events, so far as the discovery of fossil relics is concerned; but in all probability neither of the two first-named would have survived but for the protective influence of man.
Remains of the Red Deer are met with in peat and superficial soils; in clay and marl below the latter; in more ancient cavern deposits, associated with relics of nearly all the extinct and several living species, as well as in estuaries and river deposits, said to have been formed before the glacial epoch. The bones and horns ​of the more ancient individuals are, on an average, larger than our semi-domesticated races. Indeed, the denizens of Great Britain are inferior in size and development of horn to those of Northern and Central Europe; whilst the Red Deer of Siberia and the Himalayas are even larger still, and approach more nearly the largest fossil forms, and to the great Wapiti of Canada: so that, considering the antiquity and wide-spread distribution of the Red Deer, and the varying climates in which it exists, one might almost refer them all to one species, certain varieties of which have become differentiated under the influence of food, climate, and situation. Horns of the Red Deer from the same deposits in Ireland as those of the Gigantic-horned Deer are not so massive as those of the same age from many localities in England and Scotland.
The Roebuck does not appear to have been a native of Ireland, according to the historian Giraldus Cambrensis, who seems to have been well acquainted with the beasts found in England in his day (1180), and at all events made inquiries in Ireland with reference to the wild animals of that country; but when its condition at that period is considered, the probability is that its fauna was comparatively unknown.
The Musk Ox, or Musk Sheep, as it is variously named, now confined to the Arctic Regions, was once a native of England, as testified by the discovery of its remains in eight or ten different localities, either in caverns or river deposits, associated here and there with remains of the Hairy Mammoth and the Hairy Rhinoceros.
The ancient British oxen were of two species, a Giant Ox and a Bison.
The Primæval or Giant Ox was a noble animal; but both species were gigantic in size, and were doubtless formidable antagonists to even the lions of the period. The Bison seems to have been prevalent in Great Britain during and long after the Roman invasion, whilst, on the other hand, there are evidences to imply that the one under consideration lived in the land before the glacial period.
The Primæval Ox's remains are met with in ancient tumuli, but perhaps it was exterminated before Cæsar's landing.
​In the brick earths of the Thames valley magnificent heads of this noble-looking animal have been discovered from time to time. Even the horn cores in many instances measure three feet, with a breadth of forehead between horns of one foot. Although abundant remains have turned up in England, Wales, and Scotland, there are no authentic data of the animal in connection with Ireland. Whether the semi-feral Chillingham breed belongs or not to this species, it is evident that it is, as regards size, a degenerate race of either of the British fossil oxen. As to the assertion that our domesticated cattle are descended from the Giant Ox, it may be stated that, unless introduced by the Romans, there is a probability that the Long-fronted Ox, which will be noticed presently, may have sprung from the latter, and in the course of ages become through domestication a distinct variety, from which all our modern cattle have been derived; but the foreign wild species are so numerous, that to speculate on domesticated breeds and their progenitors would be a fruitless undertaking. With reference to our islands, and Europe generally, it was believed by Cuvier—and Bell in his 'British Quadrupeds' is of the same opinion—that our domestic cattle are the degenerate descendants of the Wild Ox, whilst Professor Owen is more inclined to think that the Romans were the first to introduce cattle into England. The discovery, however, of remains of the Long-fronted Ox in various parts of the country, associated with stone and bronze implements considered pre-Roman, gives strength to the view that it was reclaimed by the ancient Britons long before the invasion. It seems, however, now impossible to differentiate all the points in connection between the wild and tame oxen, so as to come to just conclusions as to their relationships; indeed, as far as pedigree is concerned, the British human and bovine animal are on a par.
The Bison or Aurochs seems, if anything, to have been more plentiful than the Giant Ox. It was larger than the living Bisons of Europe and America, but the connections between the three are very close, and, when we admit time as a factor, in conjunction with food, region, and climate, it may be fairly allowed that the present denizens of the Lithuanian, Moldavian, Wallachian, and Caucasian forests and North-western America are very closely allied to each other, and lo the fossil remains found in Great ​Britain and on the Continent. The finest bulls of the Lithuanian breed stand about five feet six inches at the withers, whilst, according to Richardson, the American Bison is upwards of six feet in height. The fossil British Aurochs, as compared with these, must have frequently reached a height of seven feet at the shoulder. The Grisly Bear is at present one of the most formidable enemies to the American Aurochs, as doubtless was also the case in bygone times on British soil.
The Long-fronted or Small Fossil Ox is considered by Prof. Owen to be an ancient and distinct species which sojourned with the other oxen, bears, elephants, and like extinct quadrupeds. It seems to have been very plentiful in Ireland, and survived at all events up to the human, and most likely the historical, period, in which cattle are frequently noticed in old Irish MSS., but of course not described with the necessary exactness to enable us to determine the species or breed. In bogs, and the deposits of lakes, especially in those of Loch Gur, its bones and skulls have been found in numbers. Many of the latter show fractured indentations on the forehead.
The antiquity of the Long-fronted Ox has been lately disputed by Professor Boyd Dawkins, who is of opinion that this Ox and the Goat were brought to Great Britain from the Continent by man long after the larger animals had disappeared—some time in the period which intervened between the commencement of the formation of bogs on the ancient Irish lakes, and the first historical evidence of the animals of the country. It is doubtful, however, whether or not we have sufficient evidence as to the exact antiquity of this Short-horned Ox. It would seem that remains have recently been found both in conjunction with the Bison and Giant Ox, Elephant, and Rhinoceros in England, and in lacustrine marls in Ireland, associated with bones of the Great-horned Deer. Looked on in connection with the origin of our cattle, it seems at all events, whether descended from the Urus or any other wild ​species, to have contributed towards the tamed stock; none of these, however, retain its well-marked cranial characteristics, which are conspicuously shown in the lengthened forehead. There are decidedly, however, as far as Ireland is concerned, very many variations in the curvature of the horns of skulls dug out of peat, which would seem to point to a long course of domestication; at all events, whether the animal was or was not a wild denizen of the land, it was very generally reared and eaten in England and Ireland during the early colonization of the islands.
Few facts in the natural history of the British Islands are more surprising than that elephants, rhinoceroses, and a species of hippopotamus once dwelt in our land, when its physical aspect was not materially different from what obtains at the present day. No doubt these and other extinct mammals were more plentiful when Great Britain formed part of the continent of Europe, and when the Thames and other rivers were broader, as testified by their deposits. Still there is evidence to show that they lingered on after Great Britain had become separated from the mainland, a few only surviving the prehistoric period.
The Thames valley in olden times, as shown by the animal remains found in its deposits—i.e., remains of elephants, rhinoceroses, and river-horses, deer, oxen, and so forth—must have presented a wilder aspect than even the banks of the upper Nile at the present day.
Not many years ago, whilst some workmen were employed in deepening a cellar below a club in Charles Street, St. James's, they discovered the grinding tooth of an Elephant, a portion of the back-bone of the Giant Ox, and the curved canine tooth of a Hippopotamus, all in the clay which underlies the gravel so well known to London geologists.
The Great Hippopotamus, which inhabited England before the glacial epoch, returned again at its close, along with other quadrupeds. It appears to have been not uncommon, seeing that remains have been found in bone caves in Devonshire, South Wales, Somersetshire, Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Gloucestershire, Middlesex, and Yorkshire, and in the deposits of the rivers Thames, Ouse, Cam, and Avon. There is only one record, and that not well authenticated, of its occurrence in Ireland, ​a canine tooth having been found near Carrickfergus, and in Scotland no traces have turned up.
In size and character the extinct river-horse of North-western Europe differed in some degree from the present denizen of the Nile, which even in historical times was plentiful in Egypt, where teeth of individuals have been discovered in river alluvium as large as those of many of the Great Hippopotamus. It may be that the former is a degenerate and modified descendant of the latter; and whilst we hesitate to associate in idea the naked hide of the Nile animal of the present day with our colder climate, enough is known of the Hairy Elephant and Rhinoceros, which dwelt here contemporaneously, to warrant the inference that the Hippopotamus may also have had a woolly coat.
Great Britain, or rather the area embraced by the insular group, during that epoch which preceded the glacial period—when, as has been already remarked, the aspect of the country, so far as its plains, rivers, mountains, and valleys were concerned, did not differ materially from what obtains at the present day—was tenanted by two species of elephants, one of which, the Southern Elephant, did not re-appear on the scene after the glacial ice and snow had begun to yield to the coming temperate climate. The other species, named the Ancient Elephant, returned to its old haunts, and the Mammoth Elephant appears now on the scene for the first time. At all events, so far as has been ascertained, there are no indications of the latter having arrived beforehand, as none of its remains have been discovered in deposits anterior to those of the glacial period.
The discovery of an entire Mammoth in the flesh, at the commencement of the present century, in frozen soil at the mouth of the river Lena, and the subsequent removal of the carcase to St. Petersburg, where it now remains, show that, like the Hairy Rhinoceros hereafter mentioned, it was an animal adapted for a cold climate.
The Mammoth at the period under consideration, and up to a late geological date, had an almost world-wide distribution. Its tusks are found in such quantities along the Siberian shores and islands to Behring's Straits, that a thriving trade in ivory has resulted, whilst the fishermen on the coast of Norfolk have dredged up many thousand grinders and tusks of the animal. It has left ​its remains in North America as far south as Mexico, and in Europe from the frozen seas to Rome. In Great Britain it has been traced throughout England, Wales, and the south of Scotland, and remains have been found in two widely distant localities in Ireland. In fact, of all the ancient British mammals the Mammoth was evidently one of the most common, and seems to have survived the Elephant next to be mentioned. Of its contemporaneous existence with man in Europe, we have evidence not only in the discovery of stone implements along with its remains, but a few years since a fragment of the tusk of a Mammoth was found in the cave of La Madelaine in the Dordogne, on which was a rude but faithful representation of this hairy Elephant, etched by means of the stone implement of some cave dweller of the period, when, together with the Reindeer and the Bear, it roamed over Southern France.
The Ancient Elephant, as it has been named, was, as far as our islands are concerned, not so gigantic in stature as the Mammoth, and was distinguished by the possession of grinders formed on a very different pattern. Taken in conjunction with other differences in the skeleton, these characters afford as well-marked distinctions between it and the Mammoth as those which exist between the African and Asiatic Elephants. The Ancient Elephant has been more frequently found in middle and southern Europe than in the north-west; nevertheless, from the quantities of teeth and bones found in England, the probability is that it was at one time quite common here. In regard to geographical distribution, the exuviæ hitherto discovered show that it was confined to Europe. The tusks of the Mammoth curved considerably upwards, whilst those of the Ancient Elephant much resembled the tusks of living species, and were nearly straight. In point of size, neither of the fossil species very much exceeded the largest African Elephant, although the bull Mammoth, as a rule, was considerably taller than its living representative.
Admitting points of distinction between these two extinct elephantine animals, we are naturally led to inquire how far they differed from the Asiatic and African Elephants of the present day. It may be stated generally that in its skeleton the Mammoth is closely allied to the Asiatic Elephant; so alike are they, indeed, ​that, but for the peculiar construction of the grinders and the curling tusks of the Mammoth, it would be difficult to distinguish them. Allowing, therefore, for influences before referred to, we may assume that the naked skin and other differences observable in the Asiatic Elephant may be due to conditions under which the animal had lived for long ages; indeed, there appears to be a growing belief among naturalists that the Mammoth might have been the progenitor of the Elephant of Asia. In the case of the Ancient Elephant there is also an agreement, though less marked, in its teeth and bones with those of the African Elephant; but we must wait for further discoveries in the soils and caverns of Southern Europe and Asia before any more exact relationships between the living and extinct species can be determined.
The Rhinoceroses that inhabited Britain possessed characters which in the opinion of many naturalists warrant their division into two or three species, all of which carried two horns, like the animals now living in Sumatra and Africa, as distinguished from other species.
The Tichorhine Two-horned Rhinoceros—so named from having a bony septum to its nose—was very plentifully distributed over England after the glacial period. It is the same animal which the Russian naturalist Pallas found frozen and entire, in 1771, in the sands of the river Viloni, in Siberia. The body was clad in long shaggy hair, and the flesh and skin were for the most part preserved, from constantly lying in frozen soil—how long, who is to say? At all events, no native traditions speak of the animal. Its remains (chiefly teeth) have turned up in about sixty different localities in England, and are usually associated, as in Siberia, with remains of the equally hirsute Mammoth. Its nearest living ally is the African or Two-horned Rhinoceros, which stands nearly five feet in height, with a length of eleven feet. To judge by the measurements of the individual discovered by Pallas, the above is a somewhat smaller animal than the extinct Tichorhine species.
Another fossil species (or variety, as some consider it) has been named the Leptorhine Two-horned Rhinoceros, and is distinguished from the last-named by a more slender body, as evidenced by its bones and teeth. The third form, named the Megarhine Two-horned Rhinoceros, is distinguished by the presence of ​incisive teeth. The second was not nearly so plentiful as the first, whilst the third has only been met with on a few occasions in deep river deposits, thus indicating its existence before the glacial epoch. Altogether, up to the present time remains of rhinoceroses have been discovered in no less than eighty different localities in England, whilst not a trace of the genus has been hitherto met with either in Scotland or in Ireland.
The Wild Hog was an ancient tenant of British soil, and maintained its footing as long as there were forests to give it shelter and its enemy—man—allowed it to exist. It still haunts the least civilized parts of Europe and Asia, and, by its accommodating disposition, can subsist where other herbivorous quadrupeds would perish.
It seems to have been plentiful in Great Britain, and the Boar, as a rule, was larger, and had the canines and molars more highly developed, than is usual with individuals of the species nowadays. Remains have been found associated with those of almost all the large extinct mammals, both in caverns and in river deposits. Its skull, battered in by either stone or metal axe, like those of the Long-fronted Ox, is often met with in the bogs and lake bottoms in Ireland, where large specimens have been found. It ceased to be a wild animal in that country after the beginning of the seventeenth century, but was very common in the twelfth century, according to Giraldus, who remarks:—"In no part of the world have I seen such abundance of boars and forest hogs; they are, however, small and misshapen and wary."
A Horse about the size of a Galloway seems to have been very common on British soil after the glacial period; indeed, single teeth, found in conjunction with remains of the Mammoth, Hippopotamus, and Rhinoceros, indicate an animal between fourteen and fifteen hands high, but the sizes of the teeth are no certain indication of the height of their owners. No doubt there were both large and small races, but, taking the bones into consideration, it may be safely surmised that the majority were about the dimensions above slated. The skulls indicate what horse dealers would designate a "fiddle head," but the limb bones imply that the owners combined strength with agility. The Horse ​was a native of Ireland in the days of the Mammoth and Reindeer, with remains of which it has been found in the lately excavated cave of Shandon. The extinction of this animal appears to have taken place long before any record of its existence was made. Some idea of the numbers of this ancient British Horse may be gathered from the fact that its remains have been recognized in no less than fifty different situations in England alone, and in northern, central, and southern Ireland; whilst, strange to say, it has not been identified in any deposits north of the Tweed. In fact, the Mammoth and Reindeer appear to have been the only large mammals which at that time frequented Scotland, where the climate was doubtless inimical to the habits and requirements of other species.
The Beaver was not uncommon in the rivers of Wales towards the close of the twelfth century, according to the Welsh author Giraldus Cambrensis. It was also, according to historians, a native of Scotland and England in the fifteenth century; but Giraldus asserts that it was not found in his time in Ireland, where up to the present day not a trace of its existence has been discovered. The bones of Beaver, Hare, Red Deer, Roebuck, Ox, Brown Bear, Wolf, and Boar have been dug up in peat-bogs; moreover, it lingered on to historical times, and was finally extirpated by man. A few are still to be found in the more remote and sequestered rivertributaries of Central and Eastern Europe, and the species still flourishes in Canada, in spite of trappers and the Hudson's Bay Company.
Along with this Beaver there lived in pre-glacial times a gigantic species to which the name of Cuvier's gigantic Beaver has been given. This species, however, did not survive the glacial period, and ought not properly to be included with the quadrupeds now under consideration. The connection, however, between the two shows that the smaller and more recent species survived the intense ​cold of the glacial epoch, possibly by migrating during ils continuance to Southern Europe. The comparison in size between these two Beavers, at one time contemporaneous, coupled with anatomical characters, seems to preclude the possibility of the larger being a more highly developed race of the smaller. Beavers' bones have been dug up in the lower brick-earths of the Thames, and under the streets of London, and there can be no doubt that at one time the Beaver built its dam on this river and its tributaries as well as on many other English, Scotch and Welsh streams and lakes.
The Hare and Rabbit have pedigrees which extend back to the days of the British Elephants, Rhinoceroses, Lions, and other large quadrupeds, nor do they seem to have been of greater size then than their present representatives, although jaws and skulls of hares have been occasionally met with somewhat larger than the same parts of any living species of the genus.
The Pikas or Tailless Hares of Northern Asia were once distributed over Europe, and several portions of their skeletons have been found in cave-deposits in England, associated with remains of nearly all the large extinct mammals.
The Lemming, still plentiful in Northern Europe, and renowned for its voracious habits, had a representative in England in olden times, as proved by the discovery of its remains in several cave-deposits. The Marmots or Ground Squirrels also had a compeer, as shown by the discovery of its relics in the cave of Fisherton, near Salisbury. The Water Rat seems to have been common, also the Long- and Short-tailed Field Mice and the Common House Mouse.
The Large Horseshoe Bat and the Noctule or Great Bat, both still natives of the British Islands, have left their bones in ​caves; but, considering that they live in these situations and hide in crevices and holes, it is possible that the bones of recent individuals may get mingled with those of fossil animals. The same may be said of the Mole, Common Shrew and Hedgehog; at the same time there is every probability that these animals were contemporary in many cases with the larger quadrupeds, with whose remains their bones have been found mingled.
The last of the mammals to arrive on the British Islands after the glacial period may or may not have been Man. It is not likely, however, that he would have pushed northwards in a land destitute of the animal food on which he must have depended for his existence; it is probable therefore that the large herbivorous quadrupeds at all events preceded him. It is clear, moreover, that he lived on the same area with them, as proven by the discovery of his flint implements in conjunction with their remains in caves and peat-bogs. In Brixham Cavern flint instruments of the chase, comprising arrow and spear heads, axes and knives of stone, have been found mingled with the broken bones and teeth of the Bear, Lion, Great Horned Deer, Reindeer, Red Deer, Roebuck, Wild Horse, Elephant and Rhinoceros. In Kent's Cavern, at Torquay, where the Fauna were more numerous, the same conditions have been observed. In the Gower Caves, Wokey Hole, and many other situations, the proofs of man's contemporaneous existence with these extinct animals are placed beyond a doubt. It is clear, moreover, that in some instances he contributed towards, and in others succeeded in, exterminating many of the quadrupeds just mentioned; but, so far as the evidence yet extends, it is not certain that he dwelt on British soil before the glacial period.
Although stone implements, more or less rude in construction, have been discovered in Ireland and Scotland, there are no recorded instances of their having been found associated with the bones of any extinct quadrupeds; at the same time there can be little doubt that the stone arrow and spear points, wherever found, are indications of the venatorial habits of the people who fabricated them. The evidence perhaps is more circumstantial than direct; but, taking into consideration the small number of flint tools found in Ireland, with the abundance of the remains of its giant deer, it is probable that, if man existed on the island at a time when it was overrun by herds of this animal, he would have destroyed them, ​and their broken bones would bear traces of his violence. But this is not the case; whilst in England the long bones have often been found broken in such a manner as to indicate that they were split by man for the sake of the marrow which they contained.
Such are a few of the most remarkable animals which lived and died on British soil during what may be styled a period insignificant in duration as compared with the antiquity of the æons which preceded. It is not the object of the writer to deal with the details from which the various periods have been differentiated; but, in conclusion, the reader is invited to realise the belief, founded on a study of the phenomena as deciphered by such geologists as Lyell, Ramsey, Forbes, and others, that the intervals of time, both before and after the junction and separation of the British Islands and the European Continent, embrace four distinct periods. These may be set down as follows:—
Period I.—A general continental land, when the British area was a continuous portion of Western Europe.
Period II.—A submergence by which the land north of London and the Thames, and Bristol with Ireland, was reduced to an archipelago of frozen islands.
Period III.—When the sea-bed rose again, and the land equalled if not exceeded in extent that of the first period; the physical outline, as far as the mountains and rivers are concerned, being at first much the same as at present, only that the land rose higher above the sea, until the cold or glacial period, when the land first sank, and then was re-elevated, when the climate, still rigorous, gradually became milder, and the animals, many of which had ​retired to the south as the glacial period set in, again returned to their former haunts, whilst not a few became extinct.
Finally, Period IV.—After an interval, more or less lengthened, the ultimate separation of the British Islands from the European Continent, and of Ireland from England took place, resulting in the geographical outline now delineated in a map of Europe.
Unreckoned ages are included in these changes, and no one can form even an approximate idea, according to modern computation, of their extent or duration.
* ↑ This article on a subject of much interest to zoologists, and upon which comparatively little has been written, was originally published in the Natural-History columns of 'The Field,' and appeared in chapters during the months of October, November and December, 1875, and January, 1876. It is now reprinted for the benefit of such of our readers as may not have seen it, and for the convenience of those who, having already perused the scattered chapters as they first appeared, may be glad to see them now collected in the more convenient and portable form of an octavo.—Ed.
* ↑ Pennant says it was a native of Scotland in 1057.
* ↑ No tradition has yet been found with reference to its Irish residence, although the name math-gamhuin (calf of the plains) is supposed by many authorities to refer to the Bear. St. Donatus, who died a.d. 840, asserts it was not in the island in his time.— A.L.A. [The skulls of Bears referred to by Dr. Ball (Trans. Roy. Irish Acad., 1849) as having been found in Ireland, are now considered to have belonged to the Grisly Bear.—Ed.]
* ↑ But the wild deer have outlived the lion, and survive to the present day. The wild ox was more probably the lion's prey.—Ed.
* ↑ Amongst others may be mentioned Kent's Cavern; Brixham Cave, Devonshire; Long Cave, near Gower; and Wokey Hole, Cheddar, Somersetshire.—Ed.
* ↑ Bridgewater Treatise.
* ↑ The last Wolf killed in Ireland was in county Kerry, in a.d. 1710. It was common in Connaught, according to O'Flaherty, in 1700. In 1641 and 1652 Wolves were very troublesome, and a council order by Cromwell, dated at Kilkenny, prohibits the exportation of wolf dogs.—A.L.A.
* ↑ Oldham, Journal Geological Society of Ireland, vol. iii., p. 252.
* ↑ Several attempts at imposition have been practised in Ireland by importing horns of the Moose, and painting them red to give a semblance of antiquity. The head of the male Gigantic Deer is in great request among dealers, and in a recent instance as much as £25 was given for a skull and horns of by no means a large individual.—A.L.A.
* ↑ Vide suprà p. 92.
* ↑ As many as 1000 antlers are said to have been taken from a rock fissure in South Wales. Falconer, Palæontological Memoirs, vol. ii., p. 510.
* ↑ Shandon Cave, near Dungarvan, Co. Waterford, where bones of upwards of fifty individuals have been found associated with those of the Wild Horse, Mammoth, Red Deer, Wolf, Bear, and Fox.—Ed.
* ↑ Cæsar mentions this animal, "Urus," as plentiful in the Hercynian forests, but does not refer to its presence in Britain.— Ed.
* ↑ The American Bison has fifteen pairs of ribs, while the European has fourteen. As regards the Aurochs, no fossil skeleton has been found sufficiently perfect to show the exact number of ribs it possessed.—Ed.
* ↑ In a curious Irish MS. of the ninth century, wild oxen are spoken of as inhabiting the county of Clare.—A.L.A.
* ↑ Many of these cuts are small, and may have been produced by blows from the narrow bronze hatchets (celts) plentifully discovered throughout the country.—A.L.A.
* ↑ Cavan and Waterford.
* ↑ Topographia Hiberniæ.
* ↑ In Lord Clermont's 'Guide to the Quadrupeds of Europe' (1859), it is stated (p. 83) that the Beaver, though in greatly reduced numhers, is still found in several rivers of the northern and central countries of Europe, such as the Danube, Rhine and Rhone, on which last it is recorded by Crespon as occurring from Pont St. Esprit to the sea, especially among willow plantations, on which it sometimes inflicts serious injury. It is rare in Russia, except on the Dwina and Petchora, but according to Pallas, is numerous in Siberia, Tartary and the Caucasus. As regards Siberia, see the first of the "Occasional Notes" in the present number.—Ed.
* ↑ Fossil remains of the Beaver have been found in Berkshire (Phil. Trans. 1757, p. 112), and in Cambridgeshire (Jenyns' 'British Vertebrate Animals,' p. 34), in Berwickshire and in Perthshire (Neill, 'Wernerian Memoirs,' vol. iii., p. 207). In the ninth century the animal was known by the Welsh as "Llosdlydan" (Leges Wallicæ, iii., 11), and in Gaelic it is still termed from tradition "Losleathen." For some further particulars on the subject the reader may be referred to an article entitled "Beavers, Ancient and Modern," which appeared in 'The Field' of March 22, 1873.—Ed.
* ↑ The statement made by Mr. Betham in 'The Field' of the 25th December, 1876, regarding the discovery of a flint arrow-head in the rib of an Irish Elk, would, of course, at once settle the point at issue. It is not, however, by any means the only asserted instance known to the writer; but unfortunately the objects have not been preserved, whilst all so-called examples hitherto subjected to the critical inspection of comparative anatomists have been proven to be the result of injuries or disease, not inflicted or caused directly by human agency. The natural historian, therefore, is bound to be careful in accepting evidence, unless authenticated by competent authorities, or the presence of the objects themselves. A rib of an Irish Elk with a hole through it is figured in Owen's 'British Fossil Mammals.' This may have been done by man, but the chances are that the injury was caused by the point of an antler of an antagonist.—A.L.A.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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