i 5 8 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 



course impossible to say, but it is noticeable that no 

 foreign furs (such as sable, ermine, and lynx) are 

 mentioned in his Will ; the only furs disposed of 

 besides Wolf being those of indigenous animals the 

 fox and the coney. 



HISTORICAL EVIDENCE. SCOTLAND. 



In a preceding page it was incidentally remarked 

 that the Wolf survived in Scotland to a much later 

 date than was the case in England. The reason is 

 pretty obvious. Long after the animal had been extir- 

 pated in England the condition of the country in 

 North Britain remained eminently suited to its nature. 

 Vast tracts of forest and moor, rugged and well-nigh 

 impenetrable in parts, entire districts of unreclaimed 

 and uncultivated land, the absence of roads, and the 

 consequent difficulty of communication between scat- 

 tered and thinly populated hamlets, long contributed 

 to shelter the Wolf not only from final extinction but 

 from the incessant persecution which had driven it 

 from the south. 



The aspect of the country in Scotland at the 

 date to which we refer may be imagined from a 

 remark of John Taylor, the Water Poet, who in 1 6 1 8 

 travelled on foot from London to Edinburgh. When 

 visiting Braemar, he says, " I was the space of twelve 

 days before I saw either house, cornfield, or habita- 

 tion of any creature, but deer, wild horses, Wolves, 

 and such like creatures, which made me doubt that I 

 should never have seen a house again." 



It must not be supposed, however, that the Wolf 



