THE WOLF. 129 



1841, wherein the statement is made : " I am at present acquainted 

 with an old gentleman between eighty and ninety years of age, 

 whose mother remembered wolves to have been killed ia the county 

 of Wexford, about the years 1730-40; and it is asserted by many 

 persons of weight and veracity, that a wolf was killed in the 

 Wicklow Mountains, so recently as 1770." 



The American wolves, of which there are many varieties, are, as 

 a rule, similar to the wolves of Europe in shape and colour, but are 

 not quite so large ; neither are they so ferocious, for it is only in 

 severe weather and when suffering extreme hunger that they will 

 attack a man. They are domestic animals with the Indians, 

 who had no other dogs before the Europeans introduced them, since 

 which time the wolf and dog have mixed and become prolific. 

 Catesby says : " It is remarkable that the European dogs that have 

 no mixture of wolves' blood have an antipathy to those that have, 

 and worry them wherever they meet. The wolf-breed acts only 

 defensively, and, with his tail between his legs, endeavours to 

 evade the other's fury. The wolves in Carolina are very numerous 

 and more destructive than any other animal." 



Tom Lawson,® the Surveyor-General of North Carolina, thus 

 describes the wolf of that country : — " The wolf of Carolina is the 

 dog of the woods. The Indians had no other curs before the 

 Christians came among them. They are made domestic. When 

 wild, they are neither so large nor so fierce as the European wolf. 

 They are not manslayers, neither is any creature in Carolina unless 

 wounded. They go in great droves in the night to hunt deer, 

 which they do as well as the best pack of hounds ; nay, one of 

 these will hunt down a deer. They are often so poor that they 

 can hardly run. When they catch no prey, they go to a swamp 

 and fill their belly full of mud ; if afterwards they chance to get 

 anything of flesh, they will disgorge the mud and eat the other. 

 When they hunt in the night, and there are a great many together, 

 they make the most hideous and frightful noise that ever was 

 heard. The fur makes good muffs. The skin, dressed to a parch- 

 ment, makes the best drum-heads, and, if tanned, makes the best 

 sort of shoes for the summer countries." 



» " History of Carolina," 1714. 



