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."[1]
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
- ↑ Topographia Hiberniæ.
