The Last Irish WolfAuthor(s): Nora FisherSource: The Irish Naturalists' Journal, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Mar., 1934), p. 41Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25532297 .

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March, 1934] The Irish Naturalists' Journal. 41

carrying quartzite pebbles but, owing to the fact that no similar beds occur in the north or east, it is quite probable that the delta extended much further north than the present Old Eed Sandstone. Only the southern half of this delta is preserved, whilst only the western margin of the delta of the porphyry bearing river remnins.

REFERENCES.

(1) iMem. Geol. Surv., Ireland, Sheet 14, pp. 12-13, 1886, Dublin.

(2) Rohleder, H. P. T., Geological Guide to the Giant's Causeway and the North Coast of Antrim, p. 8, 1929, Belfast.

(3) 'Nolan, Joseph, "

On the Old Bed Sandstone of the North of

Ireland,'* Quart. Journ. Geol. Boc, 'No. 144, p. 534, 1880.

(4) Gregory, J. W., and Barrett, B. H., General Stratigraphy, p. 100, 1931, (London.

ZOOLOGICAL NOTES.

THE LAST IRISH WOLF.

I believe it is generally accepted that the last wolf in Ireland is

supposed to have been killed in the Knttekmealdown Mountains, between

Tipperary and Waterford, in 1770 (Irish NatqJS, p. 95, 1924). I recently came across the following letter which w&s^mhlished in The Field of

September 18th, 1885, and seems to have been overlooked. It is from

Capt. G. A. Graham, the resuscitator of the Irish Wolfhound!, and runs as follows : "In answer to the query of your correspondent J.W.D., though I am unable to speak about the black-and-tan pack he alludes to as existing (?) in the West oi Ireland, I can inform him that the grandfather of the present Mr. Watson Of Ballydarton?a well-known master of hounds in Co. Carlow?kept a pack of hounds for wolf-hunting, and that he killed his last wolf at Myshall, close to Ballydarton, about 1786."

According to Scharfi (Irish Nat. 31, pp. 133-6, 1922) the last wolf is

variously given as having been killed in three different places; one in the south (presumably the Knockmealdown Mountains), another near Glenarm, Co. Antrim, and the third at Wolfhill, three miles from Belfast.

Capt. Graham's letter is reprinted in Dogs : their History and Develop ment, by Edward C. Ash, vol. 1, p. 226, 1927.

Public Museums, Liverpool. NORA FISHEK.

REVIVAL OF AN OLD ESCALLOP FISHERY.

Of late there has been a revival, at various places on the County Down

coast, of the old escallop industry which at one time, over half a century ago, formed the main source of livelihood for the fishermen, of Carrick

fergus, Bangor and Portaferry. At that time, too, Jersey fishermen came north to Strangford Lough and worked the escalloo and oyster beds near the bar. Since then there has been very little dredging for Pecten maximus until about four years ago, when Groomsport fishermen found a productive bed off Ballymacormick Point and have since worked it successfully.

A couple of years ago two Portaferry fishermen, urged by the father of one, an old man who remembered the Channel Islanders working The Bar beds, started dredging there with surprising results, and now these beds are being worked by both Portaferry and Portavogie boats. As a result of a survey car?ied out last summer by our Fisheries Department, other productive beds were discovered, including one off Black Head, Co.

Antrim, another off Annalong, Co. Down, in a position known as "

the old oyster bank," and an especially large bank, about eight miles seaward of Quintin Bay, Ards, Co. Down, in 22 fathoms. As this fishery is carried on mainly from November to

April, when herring fishing and trawling

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