THE EXTINCT BRITISH WOLF. 
257 
44 On the south side of Beann Nevis, a large pine forest, which 
extended from the western braes of Lochaber to the Black 
Water and the mosses of Rannach, was burned to expel the 
wolves. In the neighbourhood of Loch Sloi, a tract of woods 
nearly twenty miles in extent was consumed for the same 
purpose.” * * * § 
John Taylor, the Water Poet, who made his 44 Penny les Pil- 
grimage ” into Scotland in 1618, saw wolves in Braemar. He 
writes : 44 My good Lord of Mar having put me into shape, I 
rode with him from his house, where I saw the ruins of an old 
castle, called the castle of Kindroghit. It was built by King 
Malcolm Canmore (for a hunting house), who reigned in Scot- 
land when Edward the Confessor, Harold, and Norman William 
reigned in England. I speak of it because it was the last house 
that I saw in those parts ; for I was the space of twelve days 
after before I saw either house, cornfield, or habitation of any 
creature, but deer, wild horses, wolves , and such-like creatures, 
which made me doubt that I should never have seen a house 
again.” f 
Years later, as we learn from Sir Robert Grordon, the wolf 
was still included amongst the wild animals of Sutherlandshire. 
He says the forests and 44 schases ” in that county were 44 verie 
profitable for feiding of bestiall, and delectable for hunting, 
being full of reid deer and roes, woulffs , foxes, wyld catts, 
brocks, skuyrells, whittrets, weasels, otters, martrixes, hares, and 
fumarts.” X 
In 1621 the price paid in Sutherlandshire for the killing of 
one wolf according to statute was 61. 1 3s. 4 d. 
Wolf-skins are mentioned in 1661 in a Customs Roll of 
Charles II., § whence it appears that two ounces of silver were 
paid 44 for ilk two daker.” || 
Twenty years later, if we are to credit the statement of Sir 
Robert Sibbald, whose 44 Scotia Illustrata” was published in 1684, 
* Notes to Sobieski Stuart’s “Last Deer of Beann Doran.” See his 
“ Poems ” published in 1822 under the assumed name of James Hay Allan. 
t “ The Pennyles Pilgrimage, or the Moneylesse Perambulation of John 
Taylor, alias the King’s Majesties Water Poet. How he travailed on, foot 
from London to Edenborough in Scotland. With his description of his 
entertainment in all places of his journey and a true report of the unmatch- 
able hunting in the Brea of Marre and Badenoch in Scotland.” 4to, London, 
1681. 
t “ Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland, from its origin to 
the year 1630.” 
§ See Glendook’s “ Scots Acts, Charles II.,” p. 36. 
|| The word “ daker ” or “ dicker ” is still in use in the leather trade, and 
means a roll of ten skins. It was anciently spelt “ ayker ” or “ dykker,” and 
the market toll was a penny each “ dyker.” 
NEW SERIES, VOL. II. — NO. VII. S 
