66 CASSELL'S POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY. 



can resist ilir :it lack of troops of wolves. The maree form circles round tin; foals, and the stallions, 

 remaining outside, resolutely charge them, and generally repel the attack, killing one or more of tlir 

 enemy. 



In countries where wolves are frequently hunted, they never quit co\er to windward ; they trot 

 along its edges till the wind of the open country comes towards them, and they can lie assured )>y their 

 scent that nothing suspicious is in that quarter ; they then advance, sniffing the coming vapours, and 

 keep as much as possible along hedges arid brushwood to avoid detection, pushing forward in a single 

 foray to the distance of many miles. 



That wolves formerly lurked in the uncleared wooded districts of the British Islands, and in 

 great numbers, is as clear, from a variety of evidence, as that bears once prowled in Scotland and 

 Wales. Coins, gems, and sculptures attest that the Lupus of the Roman historians and poets, and 

 the Lupa which was fabled to have suckled Romulus and Remus, was the same animal as the ancient 

 British wolf. Whatever the Romans did to put down these ferocious beasts, they certainly left enough 

 for their Saxon and Norman successors to accomplish. 



The month which corresponds with our January, was called l>y the Anglo-Saxons, as an ancient. 

 writer says, " Wolf-monat to wit, Wolf-moneth, because people are wont always in that moneth to 

 be more in danger to be devoured of wolves than in any season els of the yeare ; for that, through the 

 extremity of cold and snow, these ravenous creatures could not find of other beauts sufficient to feed 

 upon." 



According to the ancient chronicles, King Edgar " tooke order," in the tenth century, "for the 

 destroying them throughout the whole realm : 



" Cambria's proud kinf;s, though with reluctance, paid 

 Their tributary wolves, head after huud, 

 In full account." 



And Malmesbury tells ns the commutation ceased in the fourth year, for want of wolves. In the 

 thirteenth century, however, they had so increased in England, that Edward 1. issued his edict to 

 "Maister Peter Corbet," to superintend their destruction; after which, we hear nothing more of them 

 in our history. 



Hollingshed states that wolves were very destructive to the flocks in Scotland in 1577 ; and it is 

 said that the last of this ferocious race perished in Lochabar, by the hand of Sir Ewen Cameron, about 

 a century afterwards. 



Long after this they were numerous in Ireland. In the mountainous parts of Tyrone the 

 inhabitants suffered much from them, and gave, from the public fund, as much for the head of a wolf 

 as they would in after times for the capture of a notorious robber on the highway. 



There lived then an adventurer, Rory Curragh, who made it his only occupation to destroy these 

 ravagers. He attacked them in the night ; midnight being the best time, as they left their lairs in 

 search of food, all around being still, and then the carnage commenced. He, like others, was aided 

 in so doing by a species of dog called the wolf-dog, having 



" An eye of slop, with ear not low, 



With horse's breast and depth of chest, 

 With breadth of loin and curve of groin, 

 And nape set far behind the head." 



Such were the dogs that Fingal bred, and such was, probably, the dog thus employed. It is said to 

 have resembled a rough, stout, half-bred greyhound, but was much stronger. 



In the County Tyrone there was at that time a large space of ground inclosed by a high stone 

 wall, having a gap at the two opposite ends, and in this were the flocks of the surrounding farmer.; 

 considered to be secure. It was, however, entered by the wolves, and its inmates slaughtered. The 

 neighbouring farmers having heard of Rory Curragh, the wolf-hunter, sent for him, offering to increase 

 the usual reward if he would destroy the two remaining wolves that had committed such devastation. 



( 'urragh undertook the task, took with him two wolf-dogs and a boy twelve years old, the only 

 companion he could obtain, and, as midnight approached, repaired to the fold. "Now," said tin; 

 hunter to the boy, " as the two wolves usually enter at the opposite extremities of the fold at the same 

 time, 1 must leave you and one of the dogs to guard this one, while I go to the other. He steals with 



