VI. FORMER PREVALENCE. 



ONE of the first enactments made by W'illiam 

 Penn during his second visit to Pennsylva- 

 nia in 1699 was to have a bounty placed 

 upon the scalps of wolves. At a Court held at 

 Chester, October 2nd, lG9o, it was stated that 

 "there 'are several wolves' heads to pay for,'' show- 

 ing that there was a bounty on wolves' heads as 

 early as 1695. In 17(»5, wolves had so increased in 

 numbers about Philadelphia that an Act was passed in 

 that year for the killing of wolves (Col. Rec, A'ol. II, 

 pp. "212, 231). The amount paid was ten shillings for 

 a dog wolf, fifteen shillings for a she-wolf. The great 

 Quaker interested himself in the matter reluctantly, 

 as he was a strong believer in the conservation of fur- 

 bearing animals. See T. Clarkson's "Memoirs of 

 \A''illiam Penn," \'ol I, p. 3.S2. But a couple of cold 

 winters had set the wolves to howling about the very 

 outskirts of Philadelphia, and something had to be 

 done to quiet the public clamor. Calves, pigs and 

 sheep, taken in some instances by two-footed thieves, 

 no doubt, were charged against the wolves, so they 

 had to sufl:er. Hundreds of wolves were slain to collect 

 the bounty. At first the numbers did not seem to de- 

 crease, and a cry was made to double the bounty. 

 This was done in some localities through private liber- 

 ality. At the time of Penn's death, in 1718, wolves 



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