200 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 



cattle and sheep were driven for protection from. 

 Wolves, are still to be seen in many parts of Ireland, 

 especially in the south. One of these, in the county 

 Tyrone, will be noticed presently. 



In Harris's edition of Sir James Ware's " Works " 

 (Dublin, 1764), the editor, commenting upon the 

 passage, " I shall but just hint at the eagerness of 

 the Irish in the chase, as in hunting Wolves and 

 stags," remarks in a footnote (p. 165), "So said in 

 the year 1658. But there are no Wolves in Ireland 

 now." This statement in turn may be controverted 

 upon very respectable authority, but the conflict of 

 evidence renders it very difficult to fix with certainty 

 the precise date at which the animal became extinct. 



The following account is given of the destruction, 

 by a noted Wolf-hunter, of the last Wolves in the 

 county Tyrone : — 



" In the mountainous parts of the county Tyrone, 

 the inhabitants suffered much from Wolves, and gaver 

 as much for the head of one of these animals as they 

 would now give (1829) for the capture of a notorious 

 robber on the highway. There lived in those days, 

 an adventurer who, alone and unassisted, made it 

 his occupation to destroy those ravagers. The time 

 for attacking them was at night. There was a 

 species of dog kept for the purpose of hunting 

 them, resembling a rough, stout, half-bred grey- 

 hound, but much stronger. 



"In the county Tyrone there was then a larg& 

 space of ground enclosed by a high stone wall, having, 

 a gap at the two opposite extremities, and in this. 



