288 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
several were killed in other districts at subsequent dates up to 
1748, when the last in Inverness and (as there seems every 
reason to believe) the last in Scotland was killed at a place 
between Fi-giuthas and Pall-a-chrocain, amongst the wilds of 
the Monaidh-laith mountains. 
Thus, in spite of the many Acts of Parliament which were 
passed to effect the destruction of Wolves in Scotland ;* in spite 
of the numerous grants of land that were made on the express 
condition of killing Wolves; in spite of the large tracts of forest 
which were cut down or burnt at the end of the sixteenth and 
beginning of the seventeeth centuries, on purpose to get rid of 
these animals; and in spite, moreover, of the rewards which were 
constantly being paid for their destruction, it was not until 150 
years ago, practically, that the object was finally accomplished. 
Now, to what conclusion does this lead us? In the earliest 
times of which history takes cognisance, when this country was 
for the greater part either dense forest, or fen, or bleak moorland 
waste, when agriculture was in its infancy, when the lower 
classes were in the condition of serfs, and those who had wealth 
spent it in feasting and hunting, the country was overrun with 
the wild animals of which I have been treating, and which served 
no other purpose than to furnish amusement and, in some cases, 
food to those who hunted them. 
Gradually, as the forests were cleared and the waste lands 
cultivated, as the condition of the lower orders was improved, 
and as they rose from mere tenants-at-will to landowners with 
vested interests in the soil they cultivated, opposition was made 
to the summary way in which their land was afforested, and 
noxious animals preserved which destroyed their flocks and 
their crops, until at length this state of things was remedied by 
royal charter. The forest laws were repealed, or considerably 
mitigated, and the complainants secured against spoilation. All 
woods that had been taken in, or, as it was termed, afforested, to 
the prejudice of the owners, were disafforested, and the owners 
were no longer compelled to tolerate the presence in their 
neighbourhood of ferocious animals, and which were then 
slain wherever and whenever they could be found. It is true 
they survived in reduced numbers for some centuries later, in 
* Acts with this object were passed in 1427, 1457, 1525, and 1577. 
