WOLF. 97 



period, if, indeed, it should not be assigned to the preceding 

 Pliocene epoch. Lupine remains are also commonly found in 

 the brick-earths of the Thames Valley and other parts of the 

 south of England ; while they likewise occur in most or all of 

 the British caverns, inclusive of those of the Pentland Hills in 

 Scotland, and of Shandon in Ireland. 



Although the records of the gradual extermination of the 

 Wolf from Britain are unfortunately far from complete, such as 

 exist have been carefully examined by Mr. J. E. Harting, from 

 whose writings the following extracts are taken. During the 

 Saxon period so numerous were these animals in England, and 

 so terrible were their devastations during the winter, that 

 January was commonly designated the " Wolf-month," and the 

 attempts of the pre-Norman sovereigns to reduce their num- 

 bers appear to have made but comparatively small impression 

 upon them. During the twelfth century Wolves were still 

 abundant in the New Forest and other districts of Hampshire, 

 while in the "Book of St. Alban's," written about 1481, wolf- 

 hunting during the winter months is mentioned as a royal and 

 noble sport. Comparatively soon after this date, that is to 

 say, some time between the years 1485 and 1509, during the 

 reign of Henry the Seventh, it appears, however, that, under 

 the inducement of rewards for their destruction. Wolves finally 

 became extinct in England. In Scotland, on the other hand, 

 as might have been expected from the nature of the country, 

 they flourished to a much later date, the numbers of these 

 animals during the reign of James the Fourth, at the close o^ 

 the fifteenth and commencement of the sixteenth centuries 

 being very great, and at times increasing to an alarming extent. 

 By 1620, if we may judge from (he price (^6 13s. 4d.) paid 

 for a single skin, it would appear, however, that they had be- 

 come scarce, and for mnny years it was commonly believed 

 that the last Scottish Wolf was killed in the year 1680. This, 



5 H 



