According to an act of the Provincial Parliament, six dollars must be paid by the county treasurer for every wolf-certificate, signed by a magistrate.  No certificate now will be granted, unless the scalp of the animal is produced, which is then taken possession of by the magistrate.  This precaution is absolutely necessary; for, previously to this arrangement, it was found that double the number of wolves were killed, or, rather twice the number of scalps were brought in—­one wolf often furnishing two pates—­a curious feature in Natural History.

Many petty frauds of this kind have been brought to light; amongst other cases, that of a magistrate, not a hundred miles from the county town, who forged seventeen wolf certificates, and succeeded in getting the money for them; and, most likely, emboldened by his success, would have continued to drive a flourishing trade, had not his career been suddenly stopped in the following manner.

One of the persons, whose name had been made use of in one or more of the certificates, was congratulated on his recent success.  He, however, denied that he had either shot or trapped a wolf during the last year, and declared, “that there must certainly be some mistake.”  An inquiry was accordingly made, whereupon the whole nefarious transaction was brought to light.

Our magistrate was not long in availing himself of the proximity of the United States; for the next day saw him an inhabitant of the good city of Rochester, in the State of New York, where, I make no doubt, over gin-cocktail, or mint-julep, he entertains the free and enlightened citizens with an account of his adroit manner of “sloping” the British Government.  Luckily for Rochester, there are no wolves in that neighbourhood.

A celebrated wolf-trapper, in the township of Smith, once caught a fine she-wolf, big with young.  Her fore-paw broken below the knee, was the only injury she had sustained.  So he thought, if he could but keep her alive till after her accouchement, he should be able to demand the bounty for every scalp; for he considered that as there was no mention made in the act respecting the size the wolves must be, he might as well have the benefit of that oversight.  He put his scheme, accordingly, into effect, and it proved quite successful.  Her wolfship in a few days was safely delivered of five fine whelps, whose scalps, with that of their mother, were duly presented to the magistrate.  At first he demurred respecting the certificate, but upon referring to the statute, he found there was no provision to meet a case of this kind.  He, however, satisfied his moral justice by the reflection, “that if the dam had remained at large a few days longer, and whelped in the Bush, it would have amounted to the same thing, and that, perhaps, many sheep had been saved from the greedy fangs of the growing family, by the ingenious plan of the trapper.”  It was a clever trick, no doubt—­a real Yankee shave; but one for which the sternest moralist can scarcely get up an effective lecture.