It is admitted by all writers upon the natural history of the British Isles, that wolves once abounded in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland; and it is an interesting circumstance, that we know with tolerable exactness, something of the dates of their extinction in Scotland and Ireland. The last wolf that is known to have been wild in Scotland, was killed about the year 1680; {288c} and the last presentment for killing wolves in Ireland, was made in the county of Cork, about the year 1710. {288d} It is remarkable, that when Buffon wrote in the last century, he or Daubenton, who assisted him, did not believe that wolves had become extinct in Great Britain. The following remarkable passage occurs in Button’s _Natural History_:—“Les Anglais pretendent en avoir purgé leur Isle, cependant on m’a assuré, qu ’il y en avait en Ecosse. Comme il y a peu de bois, dans la partie meridionale, de la Grand Bretagne, on a eu plus de facilité pour les detruire.”—Buffon’s _Natural History_, vol. vii. p. 50, title “Du Loup”; in which work Buffon was assisted by Daubenton, the naturalist. As Buffon was born in 1707, and Daubenton in 1716, it is quite possible that one or both of them, received the information upon that point, from some person, who had lived in Scotland, before the extinction of wolves in that country; and, consequently, it might easily be believed by either of them, that wolves were to be found there, at the time when that passage was written. Holinshed wrote his _Chronicles_ in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; and he mentions, that wolves then abounded in Scotland:— “First of all therefore in the fields and wild places of the country, there is great plenty of hares, red deere, fallow deere, roes, wild horsses, wolves and foxes.” * * * “The wolves are most fierce and noisome to the heards and flocks, in all parts of Scotland, saving in one parcell of Angus, called Glennorsdale, where these beasts doo no manner of hurt unto the domesticall catell, but preie onlie upon the wild.”—Holinshed’s _Chronicles_, _Description of Scotland_, vol. ii. p. 14. We also know from Camden, who likewise wrote in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, that at the time when he wrote, wolves were very common in Scotland. {289} He also informs us in another place, that Scotland was “grievously infested with fierce wolves, which not only make dreadful havoc of cattle, but even fall upon men, with such inveteracy and mischief, not only in this but in many other parts of Scotland, that by act of Parliament, the sheriffs and inhabitants in every county, are obliged to go out three times a year, to destroy the wolves and their young ones.” {290a} We also learn from Camden, that at that time, Ireland swarmed with wolves. {290b}