322 APPENDIX. 



MAMMALIA. 



Having thus endeavoured to describe the geographical posi- 

 tion and areas, and the physical aspects of the county, and 

 having also ascribed to it its faunal position in relation to 

 the other faunal areas of Scotland, we proceed to speak of the 

 vertebrate fauna, and, as is customary, besides being in accord- 

 ance with natural position, we commence this portion with 

 the Mammalia. 



The oft-quoted passage in Sir Robert Gordon's Earldom of 

 Sutherland (1630), must, we fear, do duty again, as being 

 about the earliest — and also almost the latest — record of two pre- 

 existing species of Mammalia. Sir Robert Gordon's list con- 

 tains " Reid Deir and Roes, Woulffs, Foxes, Wyld Catts, Brocks, 

 Skuyrells, Whitretts, Weasels, Otters, Martrixes, Hares, and 

 Foumarts." 



According to tradition, wolves were at one time so abundant 

 in Sutherland that the natives of the west coast buried all their 

 dead on the Island of Handa, to avoid the disinterment by 

 wolves ( Voyage round Scotland, p. 347). Mr. Scrope instances 

 accounts of four old wolves and several whelps which were all 

 killed about the same time, but in different places, between the 

 years 1690 and 1700. The localities named are Achumore, in 

 Assynt, Halladale, and Glen Loth, the latter being the locality 

 of the veritable " last wolf" of the county. " These," says Mr. 

 Scrope, "were the last wolves killed in Sutherlandshire, and 

 the den was between Craig Vhodich and Craig Voakie, by the 

 narrow glen of Loth." — {Days of Deer- Stalking, pp. 374-7.) 



In 1621 we have record of the wolf in Sutherland. The follow- 

 ing is from a MS. Account-Book of Sir Robert Gordon, Factor 

 of Sutherland : — 



Item. — Sex poundis threttein shillings four pennies given this yeeir 

 (1021) to Thomas Gordoun for the killing of one wolff, and that 

 according to the Acts of the countrey. 



And we find an earlier record still, as follows : — The Rev. Dr. 

 J. M. Joass, to whom we are indebted for several curious items 

 of information, says— " I find in a facsimile copy of a map of 

 Great Britain from the Bodleian Library, and supposed to have 

 been made by Edward II. when Prince of Wales, 1 that Suther- 

 land has the figure of a wolf on the top of a mountain, with the 

 legend — ! Hic abundant lupi.'" 



We have evidence of the occurrence, in prehistoric times, 

 of the reindeer (Cervus tarandus) and the beaver {Castor fiber), 

 remains of which have been found in different parts of Caith- 

 ness and Sutherland. A number of bones, some showing the 

 palmation by which the reindeer was identified, were found 

 i Circa a.d. 1280?— J. A. H.-B. 



