THE WOLF. 169 



and such-like creatures, which made me doubt that 

 I should never have seen a house again."* 



Years later, as we learn from Sir Robert Gordon, 

 the "Wolf was still included amongst the wUd animals 

 of Sutherlandshire. He says the forests and 

 *' schases " in that county were " verie profitable for 

 feiding of bestiall, and delectable for hunting, being 

 full of reid deer and roes, Woulffs, foxes, wyld catts, 

 brocks, skuyrells, whittrets, weasels, otters, martrixes, 

 hares, and fumarts."t 



In 1 62 1 the price paid in Sutherlandshire for the 

 killing of one Wolf according to statute was 

 61. lis. 4d. 



Wolf-skins are mentioned in 1661 in a Customs 

 Roll of Charles II., t whence it appears that two 

 ounces of silver were paid " for Uk two daker."§ 



Twenty years later, if we are to credit the state- 

 ment of Sir Robert Sibbald, whose "Scotia Illus- 

 trata " was published in 1684, the animal had 

 become extinct. His words are: Zupi olim frequentes 

 erant, quidam etiam de Caledoniis ursis loquuntur. 



* " The Pennyles Pilgrimage, or the Moneylesse Perambulation of 

 John Taylor, alias the King's Majesties Water Poet. How he travailed 

 on foot from London to Edenborough in Scotland. With his descrip- 

 tion of his entertainment in all places of his journey and a true report 

 of the nnmatchable hunting in the Brea of Marre and Badenoch in 

 Scotland." 4to, London, 1681. 



t " Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland, from its 

 origin to the year 1630." 



X See Glendook's " Scots Acts," Charles II., p. 36. 



§ The word " daker" or " dicker" (Greek bexa, ten) is still in use in 

 the leather trade, and means a roll of ten skins. It was anciently 

 spelt " dyker" or " dykker," and the market-toll was a penny each 

 "dyker." See the Durham Household Book, 1530-1534, pp. 107, 205, 

 where this word frequently occurs. 



