Miscellaneous. 153 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



On Wolves Suckling Children. By the Honourable F. Egerton. 

 Communicated by Sir Roderick I. Murchison. 



To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History. 



16 Belgrave Square, July 19, 1851. 



Gentlemen, — The annexed extract from the journal of the Hon. 

 Capt. Francis Egerton, R.N., who recently travelled in India with 

 Lord Grosvenor, was sent to me by his father, the Earl of Ellesmere, 

 with this remark : — " It is odd that the same tale, like that of Sinbad 

 the sailor, should extend to the Highlands. I got a story identical 

 in all its particulars of the wolf time of Sutherland from the old 

 forester of the Reay ; in which district Gaelic tradition avers that 

 wolves so abounded, that it was usual to bury in the Island of Handa 

 to avoid desecration of the graves." 



On referring the case to Professor Owen at the late Meeting of the 

 British Association for the Advancement of Science at Ipswich, the 

 following was his reply : — 



" I have read with much interest the wolf story, and do not see 

 very great improbability in it ; but it could not be accepted at the 

 Zoological Section because the facts are related at second-hand, the rule 

 being that an observation must be communicated by the observer." 



Under these circumstances, I think it right to give publicity to the 

 little narrative of Capt. Egerton, which, although possibly printed in 

 India, has not to my knowledge, nor to that of Professor Owen, been 

 made known in England. 



If this story be substantiated, may we not, after all the scepticism of 

 the day, go back to the belief of our childhood, that Romulus and 

 Remus were really suckled by a wolf? 



Your very obedient servant, 



Roderick I. Murchison. 



The Wolf Story. 



February 14, 1851. 

 Colonel Sleeman told me one of the strangest stories I ever heard 

 relative to some children, natives of this country (Oude), carried away 

 and brought up by wolves. He is acquainted with five instances of 

 this, in two of which he has both seen the children and knows the 

 circumstances connected with their recapture from the animals. It 

 seems that wolves are very numerous about Caunpore and Lucknow, 

 and that children are constantly being carried off by them. Most of 

 these have of course served as dinners for their captors, but some 

 have been brought up and educated after their own fashion by them. 

 Some time ago, two of the king of Oude's sowars (mounted gens 

 d'armes), riding along the banks of the Goomptje, saw three animals 

 come down to drink. Two were evidently young wolves, but the 

 third was as evidently some other animal. The sowars rushed in upon 

 them and captured the three, and to their great surprise found that 

 one was a small naked boy. He was on all-fours like his companions, 

 had callosities on his knees and elbows, evidently caused by the atti- 

 tude used in moving about, and bit and scratched violently in resist- 



