THE WOLF: 185 
lordship, for it is universally known to the inhabitants 
of Scotland that not a single Wolf has been seen in 
any part of that country for more than a century past.” 
In asserting that this is universally known to the 
inhabitants of Scotland, the translator and editor has 
erred in the other extreme, for, as has been already 
shown, Wolves were killed in Sutherland within fifty 
years of the date of his remark and within thirteen 
years of the date mentioned by Buffon. 
HisTorRIcAL EVIDENCE.—IRELAND. 
From the scanty and more or less inaccessible 
nature of the records relating to the natural history 
of Ireland, compared with what exists in the case of 
England and Scotland, the result of a search for 
materials for a history of the Wolf in Ireland has 
proved less satisfactory than could have been wished. 
Nevertheless, some curious fragments of information 
on the subject have been collected from various 
sources, and are now brought together for the first 
time. 
There is abundant evidence to show that Wolves 
formerly existed in great numbers in Ireland, and 
that they maintained their ground for a longer 
period there than in any other part of the United 
Kingdom. In bygone ages they must have fared 
sumptuously amongst the herds of reindeer and 
Trish elk, which at one time were contemporary with 
them; and the discovery of numerous skeletons, 
often entire herds of deer, imbedded in the mud of 
ancient lakes, has led to the surmise that these 
