WOLVES IN SUTHERLAND. 375 



extinct. The inhabitants turned out in a body, and very 

 carefully scoured the whole country; carefully, but not 

 successfully, for, after a very laborious search, no wolf 

 could be found, and the party broke up. 



A few days afterwards a man, by the name of Poison, 

 who resided at Wester Helmesdale, followed up the search, 

 by minutely examining the wild recesses in the neighbour- 

 hood of Glen-Loth, which he fancied had not been suffi- 

 ciently attended to before. He was accompanied only by 

 two young lads, one of them his son, and the other an 

 active herd boy. Poison was an old hunter, and had much 

 experience in tracing and destroying wolves and other pre- 

 datory animals : forming his own conjectures, he proceeded 

 at once to the wild and rugged ground that surrounds the 

 rocky mountain gully which forms the channel of the burn 

 of Sledale. Here, after a minute investigation, he 

 discovered a narrow fissure in the midst of a confused mass 

 of large fragments of rock, which, upon examination, he 

 had reason to think might lead to a larger opening or 

 cavern below, which the wolf might use as his den. 

 Stones were now thrown down, and other means resorted 

 to, to rouse any animal that might be lurking within. 

 Nothing formidable appearing, the two lads contrived to 

 squeeze themselves through the fissure, that they might 

 examine the interior, whilst Poison kept guard on the 

 outside. The boys descended through the narrow passage 

 into a small cavern, which was evidently a wolfs den, for 

 the ground was covered with bones and horns of animals, 

 feathers, and egg-shells, and the dark space was somewhat 

 enlivened by five or six active wolf cubs. Not a little 

 dubious of the event, the voice of the poor boys came up 



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