164 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 



stance, under date "October 24th, I49 1 /' we nn( l 

 this entry : — 



' Item, til a fallow broclitye king ij wolfis in Lythgow . . . Vs." 



In the time of James V. their numbers and ravages 

 were formidable. At that period great part of Ross, 

 Inverness, almost the whole of Cromarty, and large 

 tracts of Perth and Argyleshire, were covered with 

 forests of piue, birch, and oak, the remains of which 

 continued to our time in Braemar, Invercauld, Rothie- 

 murchus, Arisaig, the banks of Loch Ness, Glen 

 Strath-Farar, and Glen Garrie; and it is known 

 from history and tradition that the braes of Moray, 

 Nairn, and Glen Urcha, the glens of Lochaber, and 

 Loch Erroch, the moors of Rannach, and the hills of 

 Ardgour were covered in the same manner.* All 

 these clouds of forests were more or less frequented 

 by Wolves. Boethius mentions their numbers and 

 devastation in his time ;t and in various districtswhere 

 they last remained, the traditions of their haunts 

 are still familiarly remembered. Loch Sloigh and 

 Strath Earn are still celebrated for their resort, and 

 in 1848 there were living in Lochaber old people 

 who related from their predecessors, that, when all 

 the countiy from the Lochie to Loch Erroch was 

 covered by a continuous pine forest, the eastern 

 tracts upon the Blackwater and the wild wilderness 

 stretching towards Rannach were so dense and 



* MacFarlane's Geographical Collections. MS. Bibl. Facult. Jurid. 

 ii. 192. Quoted in Stuart's " Lays of the Deer Forest." 

 f " Scot. Hist." fol. 7. 



