448 INCREASE IN NUMBERS. 



Scandinavia. From time immemorial, indeed, they have 

 been a standing grievance. Olaus Magnus, who flourished 

 in the sixteenth century, tells us that in his day the 

 country was overrun with those beasts, and Pontoppidan 

 that, " they were the plague and torment of the land/' 



The extermination of wolves in countries like Sweden 

 and Norway, covered with boundless forests and mountain- 

 fastnesses, though a consummation devoutly to be wished, 

 is next to an impossibility. Still, one would imagine that 

 persecuted as they are in every way, their numbers would 

 be materially diminished. But this is not the case. Indeed, 

 it would appear that, on the contrary, they are rather on the 

 increase than otherwise. 



To what cause the increase of wolves is attributable is 

 hard to say. Not improbably, however, to migrations from 

 Russia and Finland, whence they may have been driven by 

 an increase of the population or other causes. The Lapps 

 have the notion that the larger portion of the wolves, which 

 persecute their herds of reindeer, are visitors from these 

 countries. And why may not this be the case ? for it would 

 seem as if they came originally from the eastward. So it 

 may be partly inferred, at least, if what we are told by 

 Bishop Pontoppidan be true namely, that " prior to 1718, 

 wolves were unknown in the bishopric of Bergen (the most 

 western district of Norway). Filefield was then the bound of 

 these creatures' devastations ; they never passed that moun- 

 tain, till about the above year, or at the end of the last war, 

 at which time the armies marched ; and all manner of neces- 

 saries of life were transported over that mountain in the 

 winter, and the insatiable wolf followed the scent of the 

 provisions." 



