Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-01-15
WOLVES IN FRANCE.
Cold Weather Drives Them Into
Towns. Where They Kill Sheen,

From the London STANDARD.
The cold weather in the south of France
seems to have made the wolves trouble
some in the Cavennes where they have
been attacking sheep in the streets and
soaring the inhabitants out of their wits
Little as tn" ordinary traveller suspects it
IieSe representatives of the primitive wild
animals of Europe still continue to find
| shel'cr IN the more mountainous districts
oil France, from which they are driven
down into the more cultivated parts bv
the SHOWS of winter. The wolf. for instance
exists in Brittany, where a wolf hunt is not
an uncommon amusement. In the neigh
borhood of Lamballe and Guingamp they
formerly We're, perhaps still are, trouble
! some to the peasants in winter time and
also, as We have lately heard, in the high
Iand region of AuVergne and the Ceyennes
WilIe IN Als;tce-Lorraine, and still more in
the Jura, they are occasionally more mn
nefous than is pleasant. The great for
ests in these districts afford them hiding
places, besides indirectly supplying them
Win 1000, Tor they are said TO eat ANYTHING
from lizards upward AS a rule they keen
away from the haunts of man unless forced
by the severity Of winter to take a wider
range IN hunting. Less than fifteen wears
ago as many as thirty-nine We're killed in
aiasace-l lorraine, and in the Jura they he
came rather formidable during the bitter
winter OF the Frarco-German WARRIOR the
battlefield gives the wolf a taste for hu-
man flesh. N
In NallorDeS there Is, or was a few wears
ago, Il Wolf CLUB, with an elaborate code
OF rules membership in which was not
granted Till the candidate had taken part
IN three successful hunts. The death of the
animal was celebrated by a flourish of
tfumpets, followed by Il feast at which a
court was held, and those convicted of
dIsobeying 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 formerly. Wolf stories abound
IN the older books about Switzerland The
Wolf has disappeared from Central and
Northern Germany. and the great bal plains
OF Belgium and Holland but it is found in
Spain, Is commoncr in Scandinavia, and is
numerous in parts of Russia on both sides
| OF the Trails, providing sometimes about the
neighborhood CT St. Petersburg and Mos
cow. This is the land of thrilling wolf
stories, which are too well known to need
repetition, and too often are, unfortunate-
| ly, true. The wolf, in fact. is very widely
distributed over the whole world, though
naturalists differ to the exact numper
| of species. Certainly one only is found in
Europe; it appears to extend over North
! ern and Central ASIA stopping short to the
south OF the Himalayas. A dark variety,
| by some considered different species oc-
| ours in Thibet, and a pale-colored one in
/ that country and Chinese Tartary
The American wolf-not the smaller COW
Que OF 'he prairle-ls also in the same
| doubtful position of specie distinctnesss, but
| probably most of the old world and rnuch
| of the northern half of the new is haunt
| ed by the same animal, though it has been
| Isolated long enough to assume fairly dis
| tinct characteristics. But the range Of the
| wolf, like that of every wild animal, how
| ever well able it may be to take care of
| itself, Is gradually narrowing. 1t once
| haunted these islands, having made its an
pearance shortly before the glacial epoch.
| Even the earlier English kings rewarded
| the slayer, and Edgar took 300 wolfskins
annually in tribute from the Welsh. Henry