n6 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 



abound, while in Scotland and Ireland they must 

 have been even still more numerous. 



The vast tracts of unreclaimed forest land which 

 formerly existed in these realms, the magnificent 

 remnants of which in many parts still strike the 

 beholder with awe and admiration, afforded for 

 centuries an impenetrable retreat for these animals, 

 from which it was well-nigh impossible to drive 

 them. It was not, indeed, until all legitimate 

 modes of hunting and trapping had proved in vain, 

 until large prices set upon the heads of old and 

 young had alike failed to compass their entire 

 destruction, that by cutting down or burning whole 

 tracts of the forests which harboured them, they 

 were at length effectually extirpated. 



In the course of the following remarks it is proposed 

 to deal, first, with the geological evidence of the 

 former existence and distribution of Wolves in the 

 British Islands ; secondly, with the historical evidence 

 of their survival and gradual extinction. 



Under the latter head it will be convenient to 

 arrange the evidence separately for England and 

 Wales, Scotland, and Ireland: and, as regards 

 England and Wales, to subdivide the subject 

 chronologically into (i) the Ancient British Period; 

 (2) the Anglo-Saxon Period; and (3) the period 

 intervening between the Norman Conquest and the 

 reign of Henry VII. 



In this reign, it is believed, the last trace of the 

 Wolf in England disappeared, since history there- 

 after is silent on the subject. In Scotland and 



