The wolf, of course, is
common; wild cat, marten, badger, and otter all would expect; but not
so the beaver, which nevertheless is abundant in the peat; and damage
enough the busy fellows must have done, cutting trees, damming
streams, flooding marshes, and like selfish speculators in all ages,
sacrificing freely the public interest to their own. Here and there
are found the skulls of bears, in one case that of a polar bear, ice-
drifted; and one of a walrus, probably washed in dead after a storm.
Beautiful, after their kind, were these fen-isles, in the eyes of the
monks who were the first settlers in the wilderness.
The author of the History of Ramsey grows enthusiastic, and, after
the manner of old monks, somewhat bombastic also, as he describes the
lonely isle which got its name from the solitary ram who had wandered
thither, either in some extreme drought or over the winter ice, and
never able to return, was found, fat beyond the wont of rams, feeding
among the wild deer. He tells of the stately ashes--most of them cut
in his time, to furnish mighty beams for the church roof; of the rich
pastures painted with all gay flowers in spring; of the 'green crown'
of reed and alder which girdled round the isle; of the fair wide mere
with its 'sandy beach' along the forest side: 'a delight,' he says,
'to all who look thereon.
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