32 



Earls of A thole entertained James V. in 1528, and Queen Mary 

 in 1563, and there is abundant proof of their existence in the next 

 century. Sir Ewan Cameron of Lochiel is traditionally said to 

 have slain the last in Lochaber in 1680, and this has till recently 

 been always quoted as the last Scottish Wolf; but there is good 

 traditional evidence that the brutes lingered much later in other 

 parts of the Highlands. The last in Morayshire, and probably in 

 Scotland, is said to have been slain by M'Queen of Pall-a-chrocain 

 in 1743, and as that celebrated sportsman lived till 1797 the 

 tradition was still fresh when two versions of it were indepen- 

 dently recorded by the brothers Stuart, in the notes to their " Lays 

 of the Deer Forest," and by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, in his well- 

 known "Account of the Moray Floods of 1829." For further 

 details on this interesting subject I must refer the reader to 

 Mr. Harting's excellent papers quoted above, and to Mr. J. Hardy's 

 observations, published in the " History of the Berwickshire 

 Naturalists' Club" (iv., pp. 268-292, vi., pp. 129-130). 



Family: URSIDAE. 



2. Ursus arctos, Linnaeus. 



Brown Bear. 



Old Scot, Bar. 



Gael., Math-ghamhainn, Math an. 



A skull and rib of the Brown Bear, found in a semi-fossil 

 condition in peat moss in Dumfriesshire, was identified by the late 

 Sir Win. Jardine, and recorded by Dr. J. A. Smith (P. S. Antiq. 

 Scotland, vin., p. 216). This skull, Dr. Smith informs me, was pur- 

 chased by him at the sale of the Applegarth collection, and presented 

 to the Museum of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. 

 The species probably was exterminated at a comparatively early 

 period, for although British Bears are mentioned by several classical 

 writers (as Martial, Claudian, etc.), and once or twice in Saxon 

 chronicles, there is no satisfactory record of their existence later 

 than the ninth or tenth century. In Gaelic tradition the Bear 

 appears in some mythical tales (Campbell, Tales o/W. Highlands, I., 

 pp. 164-175), and is said to have given their name to the 

 Mc Mhathains or Mathisons (Notes and Queries, 6th ser., xi., p. 105), 

 but there appear to be now only vague traditions of its existence 

 as a Scottish beast of chase. 



