292 The Squirrel. [Sess, 
found by way of counterbalance. Man, however, sometimes 
presumes to be wiser than the framer of natural law, and in- 
terferes with Nature, with the most ruinous results. Rabbits, 
as is well known, were introduced into Australia and New 
Zealand, and quickly increased to such an extent that agricul- 
turists were practically ruined. 
I am not prepared to state whether squirrels are, or are 
not, indigenous to Scotland. It is on record that they have 
been imported from Russia and Norway to this country as pets, 
and, speaking from my own experience, many pets escape. 
About 1772 the then Duke of Buccleuch kept squirrels in a 
miniature zoological garden at Dalkeith Park, from which a 
number got access to the woods of the park, where they in- 
creased with amazing rapidity. It is now close on forty years 
since the late Tom Inglis, who was so long at Dalkeith Park 
gate, informed me that he came to Dalkeith in 1825,and a year 
or two after that time he procured several nests of squirrels and 
sent them to Minto, where he had previously been, and also 
to a friend at The Haining, near Selkirk, where they quickly 
spread in all directions. Again, in 1844,the then Lord Lovat 
introduced them to Beaufort Castle in Strathglass, about ten 
miles north of Inverness. JI am informed by Mr Donald 
Grant of Grantown, who, as factor on several estates, and 
from long association in Speyside, is entitled to respect, that 
when Lord Lovat was conveying the squirrels north by coach, 
and when changing horses at the inn near Alvie, the cage fell © 
off the top of the coach and several of the prisoners escaped — 
to the Rothiemurchus pine forest. Mr Grant did not actually — 
see the animals escape, but his memory carries him back to 
that time, so that its accuracy need not be doubted. I re-— 
member being told when a young lad that squirrels had been 
introduced into Ladykirk, in Berwickshire, but as this was 
only hearsay, perhaps too much credence cannot be placed on 
it. The fact, however, remains that squirrels were introduced 
to Dalkeith, in Mid-Lothian ; Minto, in Roxburghshire; The 
Haining, in Selkirkshire; Dunkeld, in Perthshire; Beaufort, 
in Inverness-shire ; Castlemilk, in Dumfriesshire ; and Barskim- 
ming, in Ayrshire. It is therefore conceivable that proprietors 
would like to see such beautiful and interesting creatures 
gambolling in their parks, and would purchase a few for in- 
Piz 
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