and Hampshire; in the north the Caledonian over- shadowed the region of the Grampians; and in the middle there was the wild region of the Pennine hills. Morasses bordered most of the principal rivers and streams. Wild animals were sufficiently abundant to allow of a trade being carried on in furs with merchants from Gaul. There were bears, wild boars, wolves, and foxes, in the forests; stags and roe-deer in the glades; beavers[1] in the rivers; and bustards were numerous on the south-eastern downs. In the north of Scotland the reindeer still survived, and was hunted by the inhabitants of Caithness, who lived in the circular stone "burgs" or "broughs."[2] The dogs used by the British hunters soon became famous in Italy.[3]
The dwellings consisted of small circular huts, made of wood or wattles, or of stone, which were sometimes protected by a stockade of timber in the woods, or by the ramparts which had been inherited from the former Neolithic inhabitants of the country. They were connected with each other by narrow tracks sufficiently wide to allow of the passage of a small horse, or sometimes of a chariot. These tracks are still to be seen in many parts of the country, and are remarkable for their irregular, winding course, so different from the wide, straight Roman road to be seen in many places close by.
- ↑ For evidence as to the animals see my Preliminary Treatise, Palæont. Soc. 1878, cii.
- ↑ Laing and Huxley, Prehistoric Remains of Caithness, 8vo, 1866. Dawkins, Pop. Sc. Rev. 1868: "The Range of the Reindeer." For an account of these circular buildings see Wilson, Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, ii. 338 et seq.
- ↑ Strabo, Mon. Hist. Brit. vi.
