152 FLESH-EATERS OF THE LAND 



end of the nose to the tip of the tail, though in exceptional 

 cases it is nearer six feet. In character it is skulking, 

 cowardly, savage and voracious. 



The Wolf is noticed in several passages of the Holy 

 Scriptures, and always with an allusion to its cruel and 

 savage disposition. The animal still abounds in the colder 

 and more mountainous parts of Europe, and in winter the 

 depredations of the packs are a serious matter. During 

 severe weather Wolves from the Carpathian Mountains and 

 from Russia cross the frozen rivers as far as to the Ardennes 

 Forest in the south-east of Belgium. In the early part of 

 last century, in Livonia, a province of Russia, only six times 

 the area of Yorkshire, in one year Wolves destroyed nearly 

 two thousand each of horses and cattle, fifteen thousand 



sheep, over two thou- 

 sand goats, and four 

 thousand swine, 

 together with calves, 

 lambs, kids, dogs, geese, 

 and fowl in smaller 

 numbers. 



We can readily be- 

 lieve that the Wolf was 

 SKULL OF THE WOLF. at one time a terror in 



(Nearly one-fourth natural size.) England. The month 



of January was called 



' Wolf-monat ' by our Anglo-Saxon forefathers, ' because 

 people are wont in that moneth to be more in danger to be 

 devoured of Wolves than in any season of the yeare.' King 

 Edgar forced the Welsh to pay him annually a tribute of 

 Wolves' heads, but the animal was common in English 

 forests for many centuries after Edgar's reign. Like the 

 eagle, the beast lingered in Scotland long after it was 

 extirpated from England, the last specimen being killed in 

 1680 ; and in Ireland it survived still longer, for in the 

 eighteenth century a reward was claimed for Wolf-killing. 

 The history of the Wolf in Europe is a tragical record. 

 It rarely attacks man except under stress of extreme hunger ; 

 but there are many stories told of packs of Wolves chasing 

 sledges in winter. By taking advantage of a characteristic 



