53 



Mr. Richard Ratheoke exhibited a unique and beautiful walking 

 stick, fabricated on board a south-sea whaler, of rings of tortoise-shell 

 upon an iron rod, with an ivory handle made from the tooth of the 

 whale of the Pacific. 



The Rev. J. Robbeeds exhibited a leather ring with a case ap- 

 pended, which, on being cut open, discovered a manuscript \vi'itten on 

 bark. It was brought to the country by a Guinea captain, and was 

 supposed to be a charm. 



Mr. T. C. Archer exhibited several curious products of the fern 

 tribe. One called Pu-lu, or vegetable silk, grown by Lady Dorothy 

 Nevill ; another was a styptic, and believed to be a Cihotium, similar to 

 the former; the third consisted of rhizomes of the Polypodium 

 calaguala. 



The paper of the evening was then read : — 



ON THE PROBABLE PERIOD OF THE EXTINCTION OF 

 WOLVES, IN ENGLAND. 



By EICHARD BROOKE, Esq., F.S.A. 



" Cruel as death and hungry as the grave ! 

 Burning for blood ! bony and gaunt, and grim ! 

 Assembling wolves in raging troops descend ; 

 And pouring o'er the country, bear along. 

 Keen as the north wind sweeps the glossy snow. 

 All is tlieii' prize. They fasten on the steed, 

 Press him to earth, and pierce his mighty heart. 

 Nor can the buU his awful front defend. 

 Or shake the murd'ring savages away." — Thomson's " Winter." 



Several descriptions of savage animals were at one period inhabitants 

 of Great Britain, which, with the increase of population and civiliza- 

 tion, have become extinct; amongst which may be mentioned the 

 wolf, bear,^ and wild boar.^ We may, however, perhaps regret the 

 extinction of other animals which were not of a destructive kind ; for 

 example, the beaver' is generally admitted by naturalists to have been, 



' Pennant's " British Zoology," vol. 1, p. 66. 



' Bell's "British Quadrupeds," p. 122; Goldsmith's "Natural History," vol. 3, p. ISO; 

 CiiWs "Institutes," vol. 4, p. 31(5; Pennant's "British Zoolooy," vol. l,p. 4S. By ourcruel 

 forest laws after the conquest, the penalty for killing a stag or boar was the loss of eyes — 

 Hallam's " View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages," vol. 2, 8th edition, 6vo. 

 p. 94. Charles I. turned out wild boars jn the new foresi, Hampshire, but they were all 

 destroyed in the civil wars — Pennant's " British Zoology," vol. 1, p. 48. An attempt was 

 made in the last century to reintroduce wild swiiio into Kngland, for some were Inrned loose 

 by General Howe, in his forests in Hampshire, but the attempt was a failure, for llie country 

 people destroyed them — Bingley's " r.riiish Quadrupeds," p. 449. 



" Pennant's " British Quadrupeds," vol. 1 , p. hO. Holinshed, in his Chronicles written in 

 the reign of Queen Elizabeth, states that the beaver was to be met with in Scotland at the 

 II 



