54 AUTUMNS ON THE SPEY. 



innocence. Nothing short of ocular demonstra- 

 tion could have converted me ; and although I 

 have never succeeded in detecting any external 

 injury inflicted on either spruce or Scotch firs, 

 yet the testimony of Dr. Gordon and others 

 whom I have quoted must be allowed to overrule 

 my negative evidence, while I have been too often 

 an unwilling witness of the havoc they commit 

 among plantations of larch. The tender bark is 

 a favourite morsel, and exhibits unmistakable 

 excoriations from their teeth, and when the juicy 

 terminal shoot at the top of the tree has just 

 made its appearance, in the warm days of Spring, 

 it would, after all, be as reasonable to suppose 

 that a squirrel should resist such a temptation, as 

 to expect a similar act of self-denial on the part 

 of a London alderman when the young asparagus 

 first comes into season. 



The disappearance of this hardy little quad- 

 ruped for so many years previous to 1844, from a 

 district where as Dr. Gordon has observed in 

 reference to Morayshire and Invernesshire 

 " there must always have been a sufficient quan- 

 tity of wood to shelter them," is certainly "re- 

 markable," and, in the absence of any ostensible 

 cause, the field of conjecture is thrown open. In 

 the list of wild animals enumerated by the old 



