NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DOG. 51 



tioned, by name Rory Carragh, sent for him, and offered the 

 usual reward, with some addition, if he would undertake to 

 destroy the two remaining wolves that had committed such 

 devastation. Carragh, undertaking the task, took with him 

 two wolf-dogs, and a little boy, the only person he could pre- 

 vail on to accompany him, and at the approach of midnight, 

 repaired to the fold in question. 



" Now," said Carragh to the boy, " as the wolves usually 

 attack the opposite extremities of the sheepfold at the same 

 time, I must leave you and one of the dogs to guard this 

 one, while I go to the other. He steals with all the caution 

 of a cat, nor will you hear him, but the dog will, and will 

 positively give him the first fall ; if you are not active, when 

 he is down, to rivet his neck to the ground with this spear, 

 ho will rise up and kill both you and the dog." 



" I'll do what I can," said the boy, as he took the spear 

 from the wolf-hunter's hand. 



Tlio boy immediately threw open the gate of the fold, and 

 took his si-iit in the inner part, close to the entrance, his faith- 

 ful companion crouching at his side, and seeming perfectly 

 aware of the dangerous business he was engaged in. The 

 niijlit was very dark and cold, and the poor little boy being 

 benumbed with the chilly air, was beginning to fall into 

 a kind of sleep, when at that instant the dog, with a roar, 

 <1 across him, and laid his mortal enemy upon the earth. 

 The boy was roused into double activity by the voice of his 

 companion, and drove the spear through the wolf's neck, as 

 he had been directed, at which time Carragh made his ap- 

 pearance with the head of the other. 



We possess no accurate information as to the date of the 

 destruction of the last Irish wolf. There was a present- 

 ment for killing wolves granted at Cork, in 1710. An old 

 gentleman, lately deceased, informed me that his mother 

 had often told him she recollected wolves having been killed 

 in the county Wexford so lately as 1740-50, and it is as- 

 serted by credible persons, that a very old one was killed 

 in the county Wicklow in 1770 ! These assertions, how- 

 ever, depending only on hearsay evidence, are not implicitly 

 to be relied on. 



THE HIGHLAND DEERHOUND. 



This dog is, as I have shown, the modern representative, 

 unchanged, save as to stature, of the Irish wolf-dog. 



