Changes of
Flora and
Fauna pro
duced by

man.

made to re-open the navigation from the Lowestoffe mouth to the capital of the county, is a remarkable proof of the continued existence of the agency which occasioned the change. More or less, the same oscillations of land and water have characterized the whole of this eastern side of the island. Thanet, which, when occupied by Hengist and Horsa, was separated from the mainland of Kent by a wide channel, is now entirely joined to the continent; but Ravensburgh, the landing-place of Henry IV., is submerged in the waves.

§3. Considering the globe as a whole, it cannot be doubted but that the great, though limited, powers which man possesses, do produce correspondent effects, both in organic and inorganic nature. Many plants indigenous to Britain have disappeared some within the last quarter of a century. You find them in Gerard's Herbal, but not in the fields. Amongst animals there has been a more evident and more remarkable process of destruction. Like the Dodos in the Mauritius, whole races have become extinct within a recent historical period. The beaver built his house on the banks of the stream beneath that summit where the eagle reared her young; and the British names of stream and of rock still remain, the witnesses of the former existence of the inhabitants which have passed away; whilst the égret and the crane, the bittern and the bustard have been lost within living memory. The

ENGLAND AND THE CONTINENT.

329

bear and the wild boar ranged the forests at the era of the Conquest, the latter in the immediate vicinity of London. The wolf continued to infest the fold long after the supposed extirpation of the foe by the tribute which the Basileus of Britain imposed upon his British vassals; but in the loose nomenclature of popular speech, it is very probable that the hyæna of Yorkshire may also have been included among the animals to which the name of "wolf" was assigned, thus bringing the ossuary of the Kirkdale cave within the period even of the last population of the wolds.

ance of some

animals.

In connection with this subject, it is not un- Disappearimportant to remark that other notices may be found of the existence, within our historical period, in Britain in particular, and in Europe in general, of other species either banished from our regions, or wholly lost, as far as we can ascertain, to animated nature. The elk reared his tall antlers in Ireland, and probably in Scotland, until after the invasion of the island by our Anglo-Normans. In the thick and damp forests of Gaul, the urus or buffalo ranged. We learn this fact by the relation of the cruel revenge with which Gunthrum punished the wretch, suspected as the slaughterer of the royal beast of chace. This was not far distant from the period, when, according to the testimony of Alcimus Avitus and Sidonius Apollinaris, the volcanoes of Central France were yet in activity.

Possible

truth in dra

The sarris, a fierce, gigantic, and now wholly extinct species of chamois, was commonly found in the forests of the Pyrenees as late as the fifteenth century, being minutely described by Gaston de Foix. And, since the tiger is even now in full vigour amidst the forests of Siberia, we may consider this fact as affording support to the narrative of the lion-hunts in the Niebelungen lay.

More perplexing are the numerous legends o legends of huge dragons, inhabiting rivers and lakes. Fabulous as they may appear in some instances, and strange in all, they yet raise a suspicion that there might exist some few surviving gigantic reptiles of the Saurian class, such as those whose bones are now found embedded in the strata,-individuals, the last, in each locality, of their species, like the boa by which the army of Regulus was assailed. Unquestionably, such relations were deeply tinged with credulity. The human mind was open to every kind of evidence, without examining the different degrees of confidence which each ought to receive. Making, however, every degree of allowance for the absence of correct observation, as well as for involuntary inaccuracies, and the tendency to seek pleasure by the marvellous, yet there will always remain a residuum, which, if we honestly endeavour to ascertain the truth, cannot be rejected consistently with right reason.

Scepticism is as great a foe to profitable

METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENA.

331

knowledge as credulity; if investigation is troublesome or disagreeable, or goes against our received opinions, we then are very apt to take refuge in a flat denial, and thus to discharge ourselves from the responsibility of inquiry, and the still greater trouble of having our preconceived opinions disturbed.

Extraordinary prevalence of

phenomena.

24. The period beginning with the partition -(we use this term, because the Roman Empire celestial in the West did not fall by the extinction of the imperial authority in the person of Augustulus: -it was placed in commission under the Barbarians until Charlemagne arose)—of the Western Empire amongst the Barbaric kingdoms and powers, and ending about the twelfth century, exhibited peculiar meteoric and atmospheric activity. The glaring parhelion, the pallid sun doubly reflected in the snow-fraught cloud, now a phenomenon of rare occurrence, so that perhaps few persons living have seen it, was repeatedly beheld in portentous aspect. Flaming lances and fiery squadrons-the flickering streams of the aurora, which, so long intermitted, appeared as a novelty to Newton and to Halley-beamed across the welkin, blazing in blood-red gleams. Astral showers covered the heavens, as if the stars were driven like chaff before a furious wind; being evidently the same stream of wandering fires, now again intersecting our sphere, and watched or sought from the observatory: but then indicating, as

Alarmn excised by

great comes.

it was deemed, the changes and the going forth of nations-the immediate harbingers of the Crusades. But no appearance excited so much awe in England as the Great Comet of 1066, such as never had been seen before. Pilgrim and merchant, monk and layman, had brought the frequent and dread report that Duke William of Normandy, Edward's cousin and appointed heir, was mustering his forces to gain and divide the land. Night after night did the appalled multitude gaze at the messenger of evil, the “long-haired star," darting its awful splendour from horizon to zenith; crowds, young and old, watched the token far beyond the midnight hour; and when they retired to their broken rest, its bright image, floating before the eye, disturbed their slumbers. Even if this were but an idle opinion, yet it was an opinion which became a reality as the moral world was then constituted. The conviction that the phenomena of nature and the destiny of mankind were bound up in mystic unity, gave more boldness to the fortunate, increased the anxieties of the desponding. And the English, throughout the whole of the Anglo-Norman period, acknowledged their subjugation to be a national punishment.

5. Had William never held his great council at Lillebonne, never been encouraged by the eager boldness and rapacity of his Norman barons, never been favoured by the wind, never landed