The wolf--His aspect and extreme ferocity--His cunning in hunting
his prey--His unsocial nature--Antiquity of the race--Where found,
and their varieties--Annihilated in England by the perseverance of
the kings and people--Decrees and rewards to encourage their
destruction by Athelstane, John, and Edward I.--Death of the last
wolf in England--Death of the last in Ireland.
The wild and furious wolf, both prudent and cowardly, is, from its
strength and voracity, the terror and the most formidable pest of the
inhabitants of those districts of France in which it is found. Provided
by Nature with a craving appetite for blood, possessing great muscular
powers, and an extraordinary scent, whether hunting or laying in ambush;
always ready to pursue and tear its victim limb from limb, the
wolf,--this tyrant,--this buccaneer of the forest lives only upon
rapine, and loves nothing but carnage.
The aspect of the wolf has something sinister and terrible in its
appearance, which his sanguinary and brutal disposition does not belie.
His head is large, his eyes sparkle with a diabolical and cannibal look,
and in the night seem to burn like two yellow flames. His muzzle is
black, his cheeks are hollow, the upper lip and chin white, the jaws and
teeth are of prodigious strength, the ears short and straight, the tail
tufty, the opening of the mouth large, and the neck so short that he is
obliged to move his whole body in order to look on one side. His length
in our forests, from the extreme point of the muzzle to the root of the
tail, is generally about three feet; his height two and a half feet. The
colour of his hair is black and red, mingled with white and gray; a
thick and rude fur, on which the showers and severe cold of winter have
no effect. The limbs of this animal are well set, his step is firm and
quick, the muscles of the neck and fore part of the body are of unusual
strength,--he will easily carry off a fat sheep in his mouth, without
resting it on the ground, and run with it faster than the shepherd who
flies to its rescue. His senses are delicate and sensitive in the
extreme; that of smelling, as I have before remarked, particularly: he
can scent his prey at an immense distance,--blood which is fresh and
flowing will attract him at least a league from the spot. When he
leaves the forest, he never forgets to stop on its verge; there turning
round, he snuffs the breeze, plunges his nostrils deep into the passing
wind, and receives through his wonderful instinct a knowledge of what is
going on amongst the animals, dead or alive, that are in the
neighbourhood.
The declared and uncompromising enemy to almost everything that has
life, the wolf attacks not only cows, oxen, horses, sheep, goats, and
pigs, but also fowls and turkeys, and especially geese, for which he has
a great fancy. In the woods also he destroys large quantities of game,
such as fawns and roebucks; and even the wild boar himself, when young,
is sometimes brought to his larder, for the wolf is one of that
voracious tribe which professes a profound contempt for vegetable diet,
and cannot do without flesh; hence the number of his devices for
supplying his table and varying his bill of fare is astonishing. But
mankind, it must be said in all justice, are not behindhand with him;
they are always on the alert; they meet him with tricks as clever as his
own, heap snare on snare to take him, and the result is that Mr. Lupus,
in spite of his strength, his agility, his practical experience, and
cunning instincts, often stretches out his limbs in death in the dark
ravines of the forest--the victim of his enemy's superior intelligence.
Obliged during the day to hide himself in the most solitary parts of the
woods, he finds there only those animals whose rapid flight enables them
to escape his clutches. Sometimes, however, after the exercise of
prodigious patience on his part, by lying in wait the whole day, at a
spot where he knows they will be certain to pass when the sun goes down,
a defenceless roebuck will occasionally fall into his jaws.
This chance on the sly producing nothing, when night has set in he seeks
the open country, approaches the farms, attacks the sheepfolds,
scratches his way under the doors, and entering wild with rage, puts
everything to death--for, to his infernal spirit, destruction is as
great a pleasure as the satisfaction of his hunger.
When the dogs growl in an under tone, when they are restless and
agitated, and snuff the wind as it drives in eddies through the
shutters, "The wolf is abroad," say the peasants.
If these runs in the open country by the light of the moon afford no
supper, he returns to the depths of his lair, or takes up the scent of
some roebuck, tracks it like a hound, and though his hope is small
indeed of ever catching it, he perseveringly follows the trail, trusting
that some other wolf, famished like himself, will head the timid animal
in its flight, and seize it as it passes, and that, like staunch
friends, they will afterwards divide the spoil between them.
But the reverse more often occurs,--and foiled and disappointed, he then
becomes, though naturally a dastard and full of fear, absolutely
courageous; the fire of hunger consumes his stomach, he fears nothing,
and braves every danger; all prudence is forgotten, and his natural
ferocity is wound up to such a pitch, that he hesitates not to meet
certain destruction, attacks the animals that are actually under the
care of man, man himself,--throws himself suddenly upon the poor
benighted traveller, and gliding slowly and softly, with the stealthy
movements of a serpent, seizes and carries off with him to the depth of
the forest the infant sleeping in its cradle, or the little, helpless,
innocent child which, ignorant of danger, laughs and plays at the
cottage-door.
Unsociable as well as savage, with a heart harder than the ball which
drills the ghastly hole in his side, loving only himself and his dark
solitudes, the wolf never associates with its own kind; and when, by
accident, it happens that a few are seen together, be sure the meeting
is not a Peace Congress, or a party of pleasure. The assembled wolves
represent a society of reds, preparing the arrangements for a combat, in
which many a stream of blood shall flow, amidst the most fearful and
horrible cries. If a wolf intends to attack a large animal,--for
instance, an ox or a horse,--or if he desires to put a watch-dog, whose
strength disquiets him, or whose vigilance incommodes him, out of his
way, he roves about the lonely paths of the forest, raising a sharp
prolonged cry, which immediately attracts other wolves in the
neighbourhood; and when he finds himself surrounded by a numerous troop
of his colleagues, bound together by no other tie than the common object
they all have in view for the moment, he conducts them to the attack,
and should the farmer be not there to out-manoeuvre them, it will be
odd indeed if the animal that they have agreed to destroy does not fall
a victim to their plans. The expedition over, the valiant brotherhood
separate, and each returns in silence to his thicket, whence they emerge
to reunite, when slaughter and blood call them forth again to make
common cause.
Wolves attain their full size in three years, and live from fifteen to
twenty; their hair, like that of man, grows gray with years, and like
him also they lose their teeth, but without the advantage of being able
to replace them; the race of wolves is as old as the flood,--even older,
for their bones have been found in antediluvian remains. They are found
in all countries on the New Continent as well as the Old. "They exist,"
observes Cuvier, "in Asia, Africa, and America, as well as in Europe;
from Egypt to Lapland; everywhere, in fact, excepting in England." How
an animal so detestable and so universally hated should have continued
to perpetuate itself, when every other species of savage beast on the
face of the earth diminishes in an infinitely greater proportion, is a
problem difficult to solve.
Fourrier, in his "_Théorie Harmonique et comparative des espèces_,"
remarks truly, that each species of the human race corresponds with some
species of the brute creation. The wolves in the forest represent the
Jews in the towns; and he asserts, that it being possible only to
compare the voracity of the one with the rapacity of the other, these
two races, which are identical by reason of their several
characteristics, will never perish, never become extinct, except
together. But the Jews decline to acknowledge the relationship thus
assumed and the paradoxical connexion between themselves and this race
of animals; they deny that the idiosyncrasies are in any degree similar,
and persist in placing this luminous idea of Fourrier's on a level with
that of the sea of lemonade, which will, according to the same author,
one day surround our planet.
The bones and teeth of wolves are often discovered, as I have already
said, amongst the _débris_ of the antediluvian world.
In the Holy Scriptures, too, there are several observations respecting
the wolf,--in them it is stated that he lives upon rapine, is violent,
cruel, bloody, crafty, and voracious; he seeks his prey by night, and
his sense of smell is wonderful. False teachers are described as wolves
in sheep's clothing; and the Prophet Habakkuk, speaking of the
Chaldeans, says, "Their horses are more fierce than the evening wolves."
And again, Isaiah, describing the peaceful reign of the Messiah,
writes,--"The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard
shall lie down with the kid: and the calf and the young lion and the
fatling together, and a little child shall lead them."
The wolf varies in shape and colour, according to the country in which
it lives. In Asia, towards Turkey, this animal is reddish; in Italy,
quite red; in India, the one called the beriah is described as being of
a light cinnamon colour; yellow wolves, with a short black mane along
the entire spine, are found in the marshes of all the hot and temperate
regions of America. The fur of the Mexican wolf is one of the richest
and most valuable known. In the regions of the north the wolf is black,
and sometimes black and gray: others are quite white; but the black wolf
is always the fiercest. The black is also found in the south of Europe,
and particularly in the Pyrennees. Colonel Hamilton Smith relates an
anecdote illustrative of its great size and weight. At a _battue_ in the
mountains near Madrid, one of these wolves, which came bounding through
the high grass towards an English gentleman who was present, was so
large that he mistook it for a donkey; and whatever visions of a ride
home might have floated across his brain for the moment, right glad was
he on discovering his error, to see his ball take immediate effect.
In former days, the Spanish wolves congregated in large packs in the
passes of the Pyrennees; and even now the _lobo_ will follow a string of
mules, as soon as it becomes dusk, keeping parallel with them as they
proceed, leaping from bush and rock, waiting his opportunity to select a
victim. Black wolves also are found in the mountains of Friuli and
Cattaro; the Vekvoturian wolf of Siberia, described by Pallas, is one of
the darkest variety. In Persia and in India wolves are trained and made
to play tricks and antics as monkeys and dogs are in Europe. At Teheran,
Bankok, and Arracan, a well-trained wolf that can dance a polka of the
country, sing a national air, and preserve a grave face during five
minutes, with a pair of spectacles on his nose, will fetch as much as
500 dollars.
"In China," remarks Colonel Smith, "wolves abound in the northern
province of Shantung;" and Buffon, quoting from Adanson, asserts, that
"there is a powerful species of the wolf in Bengal, which hunt in packs,
in company with the lion." "One night," says Adanson, "a lion and a wolf
entered the court of the house in which I slept, and unperceived,
carried off my provisions; in the morning my hosts were quite satisfied,
from the well-marked and well-known impressions of their feet in the
sand, that the animals had come together to forage." Colonel Smith
observes, that "the French wolves are generally browner and somewhat
stronger than those of Germany, with an appearance far more wild and
savage: the Russian are larger, and seem more bulky and formidable, from
the great quantity of long coarse hair that cover them on the neck and
cheeks."
"The Swedish and Norwegian are," he says, "similar to the Russian; but
appear deeper and heavier in the shoulder; they are also lighter in
colour, and in winter become completely white. The Alpine wolves are
yellowish, and smaller than the French. This is the type of wolf that is
commonly found in the western countries of Europe; and it was, in all
probability, this species that once infested the wild and extensive
woodland districts of the British Islands; for that wolves were once
exceedingly numerous in England, is as certain as that the bear formerly
prowled in Wales and Scotland, and with the former was the terror of the
inhabitants. How dangerous to them, and how very common they must have
been, is evident from the necessity that existed in the reign of
Athelstane, 925, for erecting on the public highway a refuge against
their attacks. A retreat was built at Flixton, in Yorkshire, to protect
travellers against these ravenous brutes. King John, in a grant quoted
by Pennant, from Bishop Littleton's collection, mentions the wolf as one
of the beasts of the chase that, despite the severe forest laws of the
feudal system, the Devonshire men were permitted to kill. Even in the
reign of the first Edward, they were still so numerous that he applied
himself in earnest to their extirpation, and enlisting criminals into
the service, commuted their punishment for a given number of wolves'
tongues;--he also permitted the Welsh to redeem the tax he imposed upon
them, by an annual tribute of 300 of these horrid animals."
That Edward, however, failed in his attempt to extirpate them, is
evident from a _mandamus_ of that monarch's successor, to all bailiffs
and legal officers of the realm, to give aid and assistance to his
faithful and well-beloved Peter Corbet, whom the King had appointed to
take and destroy wolves (_lupos_) in all forests, parks, and other
places in the counties of Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford, and Salop,
wherever they could be found. In Derbyshire, certain tenants of lands,
at Wormhill, held them on condition that they should hunt the wolves
that harboured in that county. The flocks of Scotland appear to have
suffered a great deal from the ravages of wolves in 1577, and they were
not finally rooted out of that portion of the island till about the year
1686, when the hand of Sir Evan Cameron made the last of them bite the
dust.
Wolves were seen in Ireland as late as the year 1710, about which time
the last presentment for killing them was found in the county of Cork.
The Saxon name for the month of January, "wolf-moneth," in which dreary
season the famished beasts became probably more desperate; and the term
for an outlaw, "wolfshed," implying that he might be killed with as much
impunity as a wolf, indicate how numerous wolves were in those times,
and the terror and hatred they inspired. In every country the
inhabitants have declared this ferocious brute the enemy of man; and in
order, if possible, to annihilate him, have employed every device;--the
result in England has been most satisfactory. The Esquimaux, that
distant and half-frozen people, have their own peculiar way of trapping
wolves; and it is somewhat singular that their ice wolf-trap, as
described by Captain Lyon, resembles exactly, except in the material of
which it is made, that of France, though it is very certain no Morvinian
ever went so far as the Melville peninsula to take a hunting lesson from
an Esquimaux. The very birds of prey, those flying thieves of the air,
are used for wolf-hunting amongst some of the savage nations of the
earth. The Kaissoks take them with the help of a large sort of hawk,
called a _beskat_, which is trained to fly at and fasten on their heads,
and tear their eyes out; and the Grand Khan of Tartary has eagles tamed
and trained to the sport in the same way as we have our packs to hunt
the roebuck and wild boar.
In the sombre forests of the Nivernais and Burgundy, where wolves are
still numerous, and where they occasion the farmers great loss by the
destruction of their cattle, they are destroyed in every way imaginable.
General _battues_ are held, and private hunting parties meet, a
multitude of traps set, pits dug, the sportsman and the peasant lie in
wait for them, and dogs and cats, well stuffed with deadly poison, are
placed near their haunts in the thick underwood. Nevertheless, and in
spite of all these crafty inventions and open war with them, the wolves
scarcely diminish in number; they still present the same formidable
phalanx, and seem determined to defy their destroyers.