164 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 
stance, under date ‘“‘ October 24th, 1491,” we find 
this entry :— 
‘Item, til a fallow brocht ye king ij wolfis in Lythgow ... Vs.” 
In the time of James V. their numbers and ravages 
were formidable. At that period great part of Ross, 
Inverness, almost the whole of Cromarty, and large 
tracts of Perth and Argyleshire, were covered with 
forests of pine, birch, and oak, the remains of which 
continued to our time in Braemar, Invercauld, Rothie- 
murchus, Arisaig, the banks of Loch Ness, Glen 
Strath-Farar, and Glen Garrie; and it is known 
from history and tradition that the braes of Moray, 
Nairn, and Glen Urcha, the glens of Lochaber, and 
Loch Erroch, the moors of Rannach, and the hills of 
Ardgour were covered in the same manner.* All 
these clouds of forests were more or less frequented 
by Wolves. Boethius mentions their numbers and 
devastation in his time;t and in various districts where 
they last remained, the traditions of their haunts 
are still familiarly remembered. Loch Sloigh and 
Strath Earn are still celebrated for their resort, and 
in 1848 there were living in Lochaber old people 
who related from their predecessors, that, when all 
the country from the Lochie to Loch Erroch was 
covered by a continuous pine forest, the eastern 
tracts upon the Blackwater and the wild wilderness 
stretching towards Rannach were so dense and 
* MacFarlane’s Geographical Collections. MS. Bibl. Facult. Jurid. 
li. 192. Quoted in Stuart’s “ Lays of the Deer Forest.” 
+ © Scot. Hist.” fol. 7. 
