The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-01-17
WOLVES IN FRANCE.
Cold Weather Drives Them Into Towns
Where They XIII sheep In the streets.
(From The LONDON standard.)

-
(From The London Standard.)
Tie cold weather In the south of France
seems to have made the wolves trouble
some In tbs Cevsnnes. where they have
eeen attacking sheep in the streets and
scsring the Inhabitants out Of their wits.
Little as the ordinary traveller suspects
It, these representatives Of the primitive
Wild animals Of Europe still continue 20
find shelter 10 the more mountainous
districts Of France, from which they
are driven down into the more cultivated
parts by the SHOWS of winter. The wolf.
for Instance, exists In Brittany. where
wolf hunt 10 not an uncommon spnuse-
ment. In the neighborbood Of Lamballe
and Guingamp they formerly were, per-
haps still are. troublesome to the peasants
In winter time. and also, as we have
latsly heard, In the high land region Of
Auvergns and the Cevsnnss, while in
AIsace- Lorraine. and still more in the
Jura, they are occasionally more numer-
Gus than Ia pleasant. Tho great forests
In These districts afford them hiding
places, besides Indirectly supplying
them with food, for they are said to eat
Anything from lizards up ward. As u rule
they keep away from the haunts OF man
unless forced by the severity Of winter to
take wider range in hunting. Less
than fifteen years ago as many as thirty
nine were killed In Alsace-Lorraine, and
In the J urs they became rather fcrmida-
ble during the bittsr winter Of the
Franco .GeImaD WARRIOR the battlefield
gives the wolf taste for human flesh.
In VaIlorhpa thpra Ia or WAS. few
years ago, q Wolf Club, with an elaborate
code OF rules, mem bsrship In which was
not granted Till the candidate had taken
part Ia three successful hunts. The
death Of the animal was celebrated by
flourish of trumpets. followed by a feast,
convicted of disobey ing the Captains
orders were put In letters of straw, and
not allowed any stronger drink than
water. In the AlpS, also, wolves exist
though they are less common than Tor
merry. Wolf stories abound In the older
be oks about Switzerland. The wolf has
disappeared from Central and Northern
Germany. and the great bare plain OF
Belgium and Holland bnt IL Is found In
spain, is commoner In Scandinavia, and
is numerous in parts OF Russia on both
sides of the Urals, prowling sometimes
burg and Moscow. This IL the land of
thrilling wolf stories, which are too
well known to need rspetitiop, and too
often are, unfortunately, true. The wolf
In fact, Is very iely distributed over
the whole world. though naturaiists
differ "a to the exact number OF species.
Certainly one only Is found in Europe;
it appears to extond over Northern and
Central Asia, stopping short to the south
of the Himalayas A dark variety, by
some considered different species. occurs
In Tibet, and psie-colored one In that
country and Chinese Tertiary.
The American wolf-not the smaller
coyote OF the prairie-is also In the same
doubtful position of specific distinctness.
but probably most of the Old World, an d
much OF the northern half Of the New,
Is haunted by the same animal, though
Il has been isolated long enough to as
sumo fairly distinct characteristics. But
the range Of the wolf, like that of every
wild animal, however we'll able IL may be
to ia Ike care of itself, is gradually mar
rowing. 1t once haunted these Islands,
having made Its appsaIahce shortly be-
fore the glacial epoch. Even the earlier
English Kings rewarded the slayer, and
tribute from the Welsh. Henry Ill. 10
said to have made grants OF land oondi-
tional on destroying these msrauderI,
In fact, they seem not to have quite dis
appesrsd from England until tue reign
of Resry VII, or about the end OF the
fifteenth century, while they fingered IN
Scotland till about the middle OF the
eighteenth, and for few years longer
in Ireland. The primaeval briton, In
fact, es In other parts Of the world, must
often have had to inter change the parts
of hunter and hunted. Mir. Reeds Pre-
historic Peeps are no doubt, clever
anachronisms, but the able sketches Q dit
ed by MIR. Ii. N. Hutchinson represent
scenes which, at any rate, are possible.
Arm men only with weapons Of stone
and hone, or even OF metal, and the
chance that the "beast OF the field should
multiply" against him is so strong that
one wonders how he managed to survive
the days of lions, sabre.toothed ttg ers
cave bears. and such predaoeous GREAT
ures. 1t was not till he invented gun
powder that his supremacy became in
disputable.