Andrew Leith Adams

“ 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 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Indeed, had it been as common as the existing African and Asiatic Lion is in many inhabited parts of these continents at the present day, neither primæval nor savage man could have held his ground against it. The other species of British Lion was both taller and stouter and had broader paws than its modern representative, otherwise the latter would be regarded as a degenerate descendant of the older race. There is no sufficient reason for believing that such animals as the Lion, Elephant, or Rhinoceros did not frequent cold regions. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”