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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
fidelity with which they retain allusions to objects and customs 
disused for two hundred years. 
An example of this occurs in an account of the slaughter of 
a remarkable wolf killed by one of the lairds of Chisholm in 
Grleann Chon-fhiadh, or the Wolves’ Grlen, a noted retreat of 
these animals in the sixteenth century. 
The animal in question had made her den in a “ earn,” or 
pile of loose rocks, whence she made excursions in every direc- 
tion until she became the terror of the country. At length the 
season of her cubs increasing her ferocity, and having killed 
some of the neighbouring people, she attracted the enterprise 
of the Laird of Chisholm and his brother, then two gallant 
young hunters, and they resolved to attempt her destruction.. 
For this they set off alone from Strath Grlass, and having tracked 
her to her den, discovered by her traces that she was abroad 
but detecting the little pattering feet of the cubs in the sand 1 
about the mouth of the den, the elder crept into the chasm with 
his drawn dirk, and began the work of vengeance on the litter. 
While he was thus occupied, the wolf returned, and infuriated 
by the expiring yelps of her cubs, rushed at the entrance, re- 
gardless of the younger Chisholm, who made a stroke at her 
with his spear, but such was her velocity, that he missed her as 
she darted past, and broke the point of his weapon. His brother, 
however, met the animal as she entered, and being armed with 
the left-handed lamhainn-chruaidh , or steel gauntlet, much 
used by the Highlanders and Irish, as the wolf rushed open- 
mouthed upon him, he thrust the iron fist into her jaws, and 
stabbed her in the breast with his dirk, while his brother, strik- 
ing at her flank with the broken spear, after a desperate struggle 
she was drawn out dead. 
The spear and the left-handed gauntlet referred to in this 
tradition are arms mentioned by Spencer, Leslie, and other 
authorities, as characteristic of the Highlanders and Irish in 
the days of Queen Mary.* 
It is true they retained the use of such ancient weapons as 
late as their muster called the “Highland Host” in 1678.f 
But no such remains appeared at Cilliechranchie, and it is there- 
fore probable that the story has descended from the time of 
Charles II. 
Another story is on record of a wolf killed by a woman of 
Cre-lebhan, near Strui, on the north side of Strath Grlass. She 
had gone to Strui a little before Christmas to borrow a girdle 
* Cf. Spencer’s “ Views of Ireland;” Derrick’s “Image of Ireland;” 
Leslie, “ De Origine, Moribus et Rebus Scotorum;” and a print in the Douce-- 
Collection, Bodl. Lib. G. vi. 47. 
t Wodrow MS. Bibl. Facult. Jurid. xeix. No. 29. 
