124 



NATURE 



[June S, 1893 



to hesitate for a moment in preferring a watershed to a 

 wapentake, since the former has natural limits, while 

 those of the latter may be the consequence of a chapter 

 of accidents. Moreover watersheds, though sometimes 

 difficult to trace and lay down on a map, are as a whole 

 much more to be trusted than some other kinds of 

 boundaries, notably more so for instance than rivers, 

 which in biology, with very rare exceptions, do not furnish 

 a scientific frontier ; but some wise man of old has 

 remarked that there is reason in the roasting of eggs, 

 and the faunist certainly ought to exercise some dis- 

 cretion in choosing his watersheds. What difference 

 there may be in the land-fauna of the two sides of the 

 peninsula of Cantire, for instance, we are at a loss to 

 conceive, and yet we have our author's line of demarcation 

 driven remorselessly along its summit ridge from its Mull 

 to West Tarbert, and thence northward, splitting Knapdale 

 in like manner, and shutting out from Argyll the home of 

 Maccallum More — Inveraray itself! If the eastern half 

 of Cantire, with Arran, Bute, Cowall, and goodness knows 

 what beside, are to form another separate district, some- 

 thing may be urged for this view, but if they are to 

 be annexed to Carrick, Kyle and Cunningham — in a word 

 to Ayrshire and the South-West of Scotland, we feel 

 bound to protest against the proceeding as an unnatural 

 union. Arran undoubtedly agrees far more in every 

 essential faunal character with Ardnamurchan than with 

 Ayrshire— that much we venture to affirm, even if we 

 should be sorry to attempt a delimitation between the 

 districts of "Argyll" and "Clyde" further to the 

 northward, or between " Argyll " and " Forth " ; but 

 though, as we have said above, we attach great import- 

 ance in many cases to watersheds, we are inclined to 

 hold ourselves entitled to cut across valleys on occasion, 

 and because Loch Lomond drains to the " Clyde " and 

 Loch Katrine to the " Forth," it does not at all follow as 

 a rule, that their upper levels belong to the districts 

 which contain their " carses." In other words the basin 

 plan of dividing a country may be overstrained. Still 

 we gladly admit that the fault is on the right side, 

 and considering the extraordinary way in which so many 

 of its counties interlock, it would be manifestly mis- 

 leading to attempt to treat Scotland according to the 

 method which is on the whole suitable enough for 

 England, where the counties are much more continent. 

 There is the old story of the man, possibly, it is true, an 

 ignorant southron, who wished to explore Cromartyshire, 

 but never succeeded in finding more than bits of it ! 



To the naturalist islands have a peculiar fascination of 

 their own, and it is quite pardonable therefore in our 

 authors that, in the introductory portion of their volume, 

 they should devote more space to the description of the 

 Inner Hebrides than to Argyll, properly so called, 

 especially when, as we have already stated, the delimit- 

 ation of their district cuts off so much of what most 

 people would include therein. Yet thereby they recall 

 the celebrated story told by Sir Walter Scott of the 

 Minister of Cumbrae, which we forbear from repeating ; 

 and we must say that in their infinite mercy they might not 

 have so wholly overlooked the interest that appertains to 

 the adjacent mainland. Ardnamurchan, before men- 

 tioned, receives its due, but Moidart and Morven, 

 NO. 1232, VOL. 48] 



Ardgour and Lochaber, Ben Nevis, the loftiest peak 

 in Great Britain, and the historic Glencoe, the gloriou 

 Loch Etive and the beautiful Loch Awe, receive but scan 

 attention. However our authors have given us, and we 

 are thankful for it, the portrait of two inhabitants of the 

 mainland — the late Peter Robertson and his pony — though, 

 not a word being vouchsafed to show why they are thus 

 honoured, many who take up the volume may wonder at 

 the preference shown to them. The present writer cannot 

 trust his recollection for equine likenesses, but if the 

 beast figured (at p. xii. of the " Preface") was that which 

 bore him on a never-to-be-forgotten day, more than 

 thirty years ago, he has no objection to urge ; and 

 undoubtedly the man was worthy of being thus com- 

 memorated since, throughout Scotland, no one was more 

 famous for his knowledge of Red Deer than the head- 

 forester of Mona Dhu — the "Black Mount" — while his 

 intimate acquaintance with the animal life of a charac- 

 teristic Highland district was no less good, and one 

 could not be in his company for half an hour without 

 recognising in him the true naturalist. He was wholly 

 different from the much-writing and much-bewritter> 

 " Field Naturalist " of the type with which we have lately 

 become painfully familiar, the man who is all eyes and 

 tongue but has no brains, thinking everything he sees is 

 seen for the first time, and is worth publishing abroad 

 because he has seen it. From one point of view this 

 man is not wrong, since it pays well to contribute a 

 sensational article so based to a nonscientific magazine, 

 while he can do this in safety, for no naturalist will be at 

 the trouble to hurt his feelings by pointing out that what 

 he writes contains nothing more than was known before, 

 and that his specious verbiage alone is new. " Mi'. 

 Robertson " — to speak of him as he was spoken of by those 

 who for many years lived under his mildly despotic 

 rule — was a man of retiring character and plain speech, 

 possessed of that admirable manner which, if not inborn, 

 comes only from mixing with all classes of society. He 

 would address a prince of blood royal without a trace of 

 servility, or a cockney sportsman without exciting sus- 

 picion of contempt. The mens sibi cojiscia recti kept him 

 from either failing. To no smattering of science did he 

 make pretence, and it was with wonder that he received 

 the application to communicate the results of his ex- 

 perience as to Red Deer to the editor of Macgillivray's 

 unhappy posthumous work already mentioned. Would 

 that the whole of it had been published there ! No one 

 could listen to his conversation without perceiving that 

 as an observer of nature he had not wasted his life, and 

 that he had thought over, if not thought out, problems 

 that have puzzled and still may puzzle the best informed 

 of naturalists. But this is enough of him, and we have 

 only said it because our authors have said nothing. We 

 must return to what they tell us. 



It is hardly to be doubted that to the naturalist the 

 most interesting of Scottish mammals are the Phocidce — 

 the Seals, and it is curious to look back upon the obscurity 

 in which they were involved until comparatively few years 

 ago — not that we would, have any one to suppose for a 

 moment that there is not plenty more to be learnt about 

 them. It is probably not yet known to the majority of 

 British zoologists that, apart from all possible or impossible 



