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.
