296 DELIBERATE INTRODUCTION OF NEW ANIMALS 



to learn, however, that they have found an easy and natural 

 route from the North Sea to the Atlantic coast by way of 

 Strath Oykell, Glen Einig, and, on the western watershed, 

 Glen Achallt, so that in 1893 they appeared on the shores 

 of Loch Broom. 



Great as was the progress of the northern advance from 

 Beaufort, the southern and eastern movements were as 

 rapid and as extensive. In 1848 Squirrels had reached the 

 banks of Loch Ness near Dochfour, and from Glenurqu- 

 hart proceeded to Glenmoriston where they became 

 common in 1864. Still holding along the northern bank of 

 Loch Ness they reached Fort Augustus about 1851 and 

 Glen Garry some three or four years later. Thence they 

 penetrated to northern Argyllshire, where they were seen in 

 1891 on the shores of Loch Eil, and pushing westwards they 

 reached the Atlantic coast in Ardnamurchan in 1896. 



To the east from Beaufort, the fertile and wooded levels 

 bordering the Moray Firth allowed of easy progress. The 

 town of Inverness was surrounded in 1851, and by regular 

 advances the Squirrels reached Nairnshire (Cawdor) in 1855, 

 Morayshire (Glen of Rothes) in 1860, and then, in company 

 with wanderers from the forests of Speyside, crossed the 

 narrow waist of Banffshire to Aberdeenshire, where they 

 reached Drumblade near Huntly, about 1864, Turriff in 

 1865 or 1866, Fyvie in 1867, and Troup Head in 1875 or 

 1876. In steady stream they seem to have trooped down 

 the valley of the Ythan from F^yvie to the woods about 

 Haddo House, and thence to the neighbourhood of Ellon, 

 where Dr R. M. Wilson noticed them in the early 'eighties. 

 They are now also common in the isolated woods of Pitfour 

 House near Old Deer. So the north-eastern corner of 

 Aberdeenshire is no longer the untrodden ground which 

 Dr Har vie- Brown found it to be close on forty years ago. 



IN THE SPEY VALLEY 



While artificial restorations of the Squirrel were being 

 made at these scattered localities, it is possible that the old 

 native race itself was making new efforts to retrieve the 

 ground it had lost, stimulated by the growth of new wood- 

 lands in places which before had been barren. We can 

 hardly believe that, so long as some of the great native 



