Mr. Hardy on the Wolf in Scotland. 285 



Sloi^ a tract of woods, nearly 20 miles in extent, was con- 

 sumed for the same purpose."* 



" Woolf-skins " rank on the customs' roll of Charles II., 

 in 1661, two ounces of silver being taken for " ilk two 

 daker." f Sir Robert Sibbald, whose Scotia Illustrata ap- 

 peared in 1684, writes thus : — ^' In former times wolves 

 abounded, but the race is now exterminated from the island." J 

 Buffon, however, who might have derived his information 

 from Scottish refugees, declared that while the English pre- 

 tended they had cleared their island, to his certain knowledge, 

 they still existed in Scotland.^ Pennant places their final 

 destruction in 1680, and says the honour of the deed is 

 ascribed by tradition, " to the famous Sir Ewen Cameron," 

 of Lochiel.ll " I have travelled," says the same observant 

 naturalist, "into almost every corner of that country, but 

 could not learn that there remained even the memory of these 

 animals among the oldest people." Such traditions, however, 

 do exist, and from one of them related by the late Sir Thomas 

 Dick Lauder, it appears that the final extinction of the 

 wolves must have happened, at a period considerably later 

 than has been usually assigned. The last wolf of Morayshire 

 was slain, by Macqueen of PoUochoch, while yet a young 

 man, a stalwart Highland laird, who was alive within half 

 a century. The following are said to have been the circum- 

 stances. A poor woman crossing the mountains in the up- 

 land parts of Morayshire, was assailed by the wolf, and her 

 infants devoured, and she escaped with difficulty to Moyhall. 

 The chief of Mackintosh, moved by pity and rage, despatched 

 immediate orders to his clan and vassals, among whom was 

 PoUochoch, to assemble the next day at twelve o'clock, to 

 proceed in a body to destroy the wolf. All were eager to 

 obey. PoUochoch, however, on whose gigantic strength and 

 determined courage, much reliance was placed, was absent. 

 At length when the chief's patience had been nearly ex- 

 hausted, he arrived ; about an hour after the appointed time. 

 The wrath of the chief rose high, but was as speedily ap- 



* Notes to Mr James Hay Allan's (J. Sobieski S. Stuart,) yoem, the " Last 

 Deer of Beann Doran." Poems, London 1822. 



t Glendook's Scots Acts, Charles IL, p. 36. A daiker of hides is either ten 

 or twelve. 



X Scot. 111. pars. ii. p. 9. 



§ Les Anglois pretendent en avoir purge leur isle, cependent, on ma assure 

 qu'il yen avoit en Eccosse. Hist. Nat. vii. p. 503. 



II Pennant's Hist, of Quadrupeds, i. p. 248. Macaulay's Hist, of England, 

 ii. p. 320. 



