126 On Mans influence in effecting 



The joint effect of these measures completely answered the 

 intended purpose. Within the five years, from 1815 to 1819 

 inclusive, 4618 dollars were paid by the government, in re- 

 wards for killing wolves. The exact number killed within 

 that period, I cannot state; but in 1817, the animal had al- 

 ready become sufficiently scarce, to make a considerable in- 

 crease in the premiums both necessary and practicable. — 

 These were now, 12 dollars for an adult female wolf, 10 dol- 

 lars for an adult male, 8 dollars for a young wolf, 4 dollars a 

 cub, and 1 dollar an embryo, as before. Thus the persecu- 

 tion of the wolves did not abate, but the animals themselves 

 became so scarce, that notwithstanding the tempting rewards, 

 only 1449 dollars were paid, within the quinquennial period 

 from 1831 to 1836 inclusive, for a total number of 256 wolves 

 destroyed during that time ; although during the latter years 

 of that period, the number of wolves had been rapidly in- 

 creasing. The reason is, that the use of fire-arms having 

 been, to a great degree, prohibited in Poland, after the revo- 

 tion, the wolves are rapidly multiplying there, and make more 

 frequent inroads into the neighbouring countries. Still no 

 human lives have been sacrificed by the wolves, in the pro- 

 vince of Posen ; but we may judge that the destruction of 

 men from that cause, must be very serious in Poland itself. 

 In the absence of more positive and extensive information, I 

 can only say, that according to the papers, four girls, of dif- 

 ferent ages, up to 16 years, were torn to pieces in August last, 

 (1837), in the parish of Briala, district of Rawa, not far from 

 their houses ; and if such things happen in summer, what 

 must be the audacity of the wolves in winter ! 



The present increase of the wolves in Poland will exempli- 

 fy, in a very striking manner, how quickly the political state 

 of a country re-acts upon its indigenous animals ; and until 

 the Russian government shall have found means to keep down 

 the wolves in Poland, the task of destroying them in the pro- 

 vince of Posen, will be beset with serious complications and 

 difficulties. Though the lives of the Prussian subjects are 

 not much threatened by the stray wolves of Poland, yet these 

 commit such depredations on the live stock, that a society is 

 now forming in the province of Posen, for the purpose of pay- 

 ing extra premiums, of five times the amount of those allow- 



of trees, at such a height, that the wolf must leap to ohtain them. Under 

 these circumstances the animal swallows the bait at once, and has not time 

 to find out that it contains any suspicious admixture, which it often does if 

 the poison be applied to the carcases of horses, &c. 



