722 \ C ' A N I S. 
< ed to arm, in order to deflroy them. When (hot, they 
11 ter a cry ; but they die in file nee under the blows of a 
bludgeon. Wolves, however, have been fo much thin¬ 
ned, in the populated parts of America, that the inhabi¬ 
tants now leave their (beep the whole night unguarded : 
yet the governments of Pennfylvania and New Jerfey fome 
years ago allowed a reward of twenty (hillings, and the laft 
even thirty (hillings, for the killing of every wolf. Tra¬ 
dition informed them what a fcourge thole animals had 
teen to the colonies in their infant date, when wolves 
came down in multitudes from the mountains, attracted 
by the fmell of the corpfes of feveral hundred Indians who 
d ed of the fmall-pox, brought among them by the.Euro¬ 
peans : but the animals did not confine their infill to the 
dead, but even devoured in their huts the fick and dying 
inhabitants. For this reafon, the planters wifely let a 
price upon their heads; and it has been an uniform maxim 
of the different colonies, to allift each other again!! the 
common enemy. Tiie well-founded ftory of general Put¬ 
nam and the wolf, will ferve to Ihovv in what abhorrence 
tills animal is yet held in the United States. “ In the 
State of Connecticut, terrible haVoc was committed by a 
ihe-wolf, which, with her annual whelps, conftantly at¬ 
tacked the fiteep-folds, and carried off’the lambs and kids. 
The young wolves were commonly deflroyed by the vigi¬ 
lance of the hunters, but the old one was too fugacious to 
come within reach of gun-fhot: upon being clofely pur¬ 
ified, flie would generally fly to the weffern woods, and 
return the next winter with another litter of whelps. This 
wolf at length became Inch an intolerable nuifance, that 
Mr. Putnam entered into a combination with five of his 
neighbours to hunt alternately until they could deflroy 
her. Two, by rotation, were to be conftantly in purfuit. 
ft was known, that, having loft the toes from one foot, 
by a (feel trap, (lie made one track fhorter than the other. 
By this veflige, the purfuers recognifed in a light fnow the 
route of this pernicious animal, having followed her to 
Connecticut river, and found fhe had turned back in a di- 
-rc£t coiirle towards Pomfret, they immediately returned, 
and by ten tire next morning the blood-hounds had driven 
her into a den, about three miles diflant from the houfe of 
Mr. Putnam : the people foon collected with dogs, guns, 
flraw, fire, and fnlphur, to attack the common enemy. 
With this apparatus feveral unfuccefsful efforts were made 
to force her from the den. The hounds came back badly 
wounded, and refuted to return. The fmoke of blazing 
flraw had no effedf ; nor did the fumes of burnt brimflone, 
with which the cavern was filled, compel her to quit the 
retirement. Wearied with finch fruitlefs attempts, (which 
had brought the time to ten o’clock at night,) Mr. Putnam 
tried once more to make his dog enter, but in vain ; lie 
propofed to his negro man to go down into the cavern and 
fhSot the wolf: the negro declined the hazardous fervice. 
Then it was that Mr. Putnam, angry at the difappoint- 
ment, and declaring that he was afhamed to have a coward 
in his family, refolved himfelf to deflroy the ferocious 
beaft, left file fliould efcape through fome unknown fiffure 
of the rock. His neighbours flrongly remonftrated againfl 
the perilous enterprise ; but he, knowing that wild ani¬ 
mals were intimidated by fire, and having provided feve¬ 
ral drips of birch bark, the only combuilible material 
which he could obtain, that would afford light in this deep 
and darkfome cave, prepared for his defeent. Having ac¬ 
cordingly divefled himfelf of his coat and vvaiftcoat, and 
having a long rope faftened round him, by which lie might 
,be pulled back at a concerted (ignal, he entered head-fore- 
inoft, with the blazing torch, and a fword. 1 lie aperture 
of the den, on the eaft fide of a very high ledge of rocks, 
is about two feet fejuare ; from thence it defeends oblique¬ 
ly fifteen fdet, then, running horizontally about ten more, 
it afeends gradually fixteen feet towards its termination. 
Tlic Tides of this fubterraneous cavity are compofed of 
frnooth and Pol id rocks, which feem to have been divided 
from each other by fome former earthquake. The top and 
bottom are alio of Hone, and the entrance, in winter 3 b<N 
ihg covered with ice, is exceedingly filppery. It is in no- 
place high enough for a man to raifie himfelf upright; nor 
in any part more than three feet in width. Having groped 
his paffage to the horizontal part of the den, the mod ter¬ 
rifying darknefs appeared in front of the dim circle of light 
afforded by liis_torch. None but monffers of the defect 
had ever before explored this folitary man (ion of horror. 
He, cautionffy proceeding onward, came to the afeent, 
which he flowly mounted on his hands and knees, until 
lie difeovered the glaring eye-balls of the wolf, who was- 
fitting at the extremity-of the cavern. Startled at the fight 
of fire, (lie gnafhed her teeth, and, gave a fullen growl. 
As foon as he had made th'c neceffary difcovery, he kick¬ 
ed the rope as a fignal for pulling him out. The people,, 
at the month of the den, who had likened with painful 
anxiety, hearing the growling of the wolf, and fuppofing 
their friend to be in the moft imminent danger, drew him 
forth with fuch celerity, that his fhirt was firipped over 
his head, and his fkin feverely lacerated. After lie had 
adjufted his clothes, and loaded his gun with nine buck 
fliot, holding a torch in one hand, and the mufket in the 
other, he defeetided a lccond time. When he drew nearer 
than before, the wolf, affirming a (fill more fierce and ter¬ 
rible appearance, howling, rolling her eyes, flapping her 
teeth, and dropping her head between her legs-, was evi¬ 
dently in the attitude and on the point of fpringing at 
him. At the critical inftant he levelled and fired at her 
head. Stunned with the ftiock, and fuftocated with the 
fmoke, lie immediately found himfelf drawn out of the 
cave. But having refrelhed himfelf, and permitted the 
fmoke to difiipate, he went down the third time. Once 
more he came within light of the wolf, who appearing ve¬ 
ry paflive, he applied the torch to her nofe ; and, perceiv¬ 
ing her dead, he took hold of her ears, and then, kicking 
the repe, the people above, with no finall exultation^ 
dragged them both out together.” 
Britain, a few centuries ago, was much infefted by 
wolves. It appears by Hollinglhed, that they were very 
noxious to the flocks in Scotland in 1577 ; nor were they 
entirely extirpated till about 1680, when the laft wolf fell 
by the hand of the famous Sir Ewen Cameron. It has. 
been a received opinion, that the other parts of thefe king¬ 
doms were in early times delivered from this peft by the* 
care of king: Edgar. In England he attempted to effeift it, 
by commuting the punilhments of certain crimes into the 
acceptance of a certain number of wolves’ tongues from 
each criminal ; and in Wales by converting the tax of 
gold and lilver into an annual tax of three hundred wolves 5 ' 
heads. But, notwithftanding thefe endeavours, and the 
affirmative affertions of fome authors, his fclteme proved* 
abortive. We find, that, fome centuries after the reign 
of that Saxon monarch, thefe animals were encreafed to 
fuch a degree as to become again the object of royal atten¬ 
tion: accordingly Edward 1 . itlued out his mandate to 
Peter Corbet to fuperintend and aflift in the deftruclion of 
the wolves in the feveral counties of Gloucefter, Worces¬ 
ter, Hereford, Salop, and Stafford ; *and, in the county 
of Derby, certain perfons at Wormhill held their lands by 
the duty of hunting and taking the wolves that infefted 
the county, whence (hey were flyled wolvc-hunt. To look 
back into the Saxon times, we find, that in Athenian's 
reign, wolves abounded in Yorkfhire ; that a retreat was 
built at FliXton in that county, “ to defend paffengers from 
the wolves, that they fhould not be devoured by them :” 
and finch ravages did thefe animals make during winter, 
particularly in January, when the cold was moft fevere, 
that the Saxons diftingliifhed that month by the name of 
the wolf-month. They alfo called an outlaw zuof’s-head , as 
being out of the protection of the law, proferibed, and as 
liable to be killed as that definitive bead. Ireland was 
ihfefled by wolves for feveral centuries after their extinc¬ 
tion in England ; for there are accounts of fome being 
found there as late as the year 1710, the laft preferment 
for killing of wolves being made in the county of Cork 
about that time. 
In 
