THE ZooLocist—A PRIL, 1872. 3007 
cannot with impunity interfere with the order of Nature or disregard 
the happiness of our weaker fellow-creatures; and to dispossess 
them violently of their natural rights, without even the excuse of 
self-defence, and worse still to make merchandize of their sufferings, 
is in my opinion highly criminal. 
The grouse disease, there can be little doubt, was the direct 
result of the destruction of the animals and birds of prey which 
would have kept the stock healthy by thinning out the weaker 
members. Everyone knows Darwin’s illustration of the way in 
which all Nature is linked together, and that even a crop of clover 
may depend on the number of old maids in the district; cats, mice 
and bees being the intermediate links. 
“From Nature’s chain whatever link you strike, 
Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.” 
Take another illustration: those who have visited Ireland must 
have noticed the absence not only of woods, but of trees and even 
hedges, over wide tracts of country, which history tells us were at 
no distant date densely covered with forest, and the undecayed 
trunks of the trees are still to be seen in every bog. Ireland must 
have been a “green isle” truly before the forests fell which once 
clothed her to the water’s edge. I daresay it was necessary to cut 
down the woods if Irishmen, smugglers and wolves were to be put 
down effectually ; but the question is, why did they not grow again? 
There has been no change of climate: the fertile soil and warm 
damp air offer the most favourable conditions for vegetation, but 
unenclosed land everywhere remains a treeless waste, browsed over 
by sheep, goats and mountain cattle. I believe that the wolf 
is the missing link, and his destruction the cause of the absence of 
trees, with which exuberant Nature would long ago have repaired 
damages had she been left to work her unimpeded will. Every 
tree which now springs up is quickly bitten down and destroyed 
by the cattle; but in the old times not only were there fewer sheep 
and goats, but the wolves made the country too hot for them to be 
mischievous or range far from home. 
I am reminded of the child’s puzzle, in which a man has to ferry 
a wolf, a goat and a cabbage over a broad river; but the boat was 
only large enough to admit of one passenger at once besides him- 
self. If he took the wolf over first, the goat would be left behind 
with the cabbage and eat it; if he took the cabbage first, the wolf 
