Cylchgronau Cymru

68 Skipton, Malham, and Bolton Abbey and Woods, the whole concluding with two portrait groups of the members assembled on that occasion. The meeting closed with a hearty vote of thanks to lecturer and lanternist. THE WOLF IN SCOTLAND AND IRELAND. At the meeting on Tuesday evening, 26th October, Mr. Hans Pendlebury exhibited sample of Paraguay Tea (Ilex paraguayensis). Mr. H. E. Forrest exhibit¬ ed a " nest " of a Trap-door Spider from Queensland, an abnormal egg of the Peewit found at Wroxeter by the Rev. R. Steavenson, and a nest of a solitary wasp, Odynerus, in a cotton-reel, found by Miss Groom, near Hadnall. These two last specimens were fully described in " Nature Notes and Queries," in the " Chronicle," 22nd October. Rev. F. A. Allen read a second and concluding paper on the " Wolf in Britain," in which he dealt W11 li "THE WOLF IN SCOTLAND AND IRELAND." The Wolf naturally survived in these countries much longer than in England, for the vast tracts of forest and moor harboured them, and the absence of roads and consequent difficulty of communication pre¬ vented their final extinction. John Taylor, the Water Poet, who in 1618 travelled on foot from London to Edinburgh, says, when visit¬ ing Braemar, " I was the space of twelve days 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." According to Hollingshed, wolves were very destruc¬ tive to the flocks in Scotland during the reign of James VI. At this time they were so numerous in the Highlands that in winter it was necessary to pro¬ vide " houses " or " spittals," as they were termed, to afford refuge for travellers who might be overtaken by night where there was no place of shelter. Hence the origin of the Spittal of Glen Shee. In 1848 there were still living in Lochaber old people who related that in olden time all the country from Lochie to Loch ErrocL was covered by a con-