6 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



sionally fish of immense size. Then we have Columba so bless- 

 ing the soil of Hy (lona) as to free it in all time from reptiles 

 — a condition easily brought about by the increase of the 

 inhabitants, and the gro\Yth among the people of industrial 

 pursuits, of which there is clear evidence in the increased 

 attention given to agriculture, and the accompanying success 

 in the form of plentiful harvests. I have referred to the wild 

 boar in connection with Columba's visit to Skye. We have 

 later notices of it on the mainland, which show that it was 

 fast disappearing. In the reign of Alexander III., Edward 

 de Montealto, Sheriff of Forfar, sets down as part of his ex- 

 penditure for the year four and a-half chalders of corn for the 

 wild boars — porci sylvestres. The remnant of the fierce boars 

 of the great Caledonian forest had come to be, as our foxes 

 now are, reared and preserved for purposes of sport. Then 

 we get a glimpse into the natural history of Eskdale so early 

 as A.D. 1200. When the Avenels granted Eskdale to the 

 monks of Melrose, they reserved the game, as hart and hind, 

 boar, roe, falcon and tercel. They were allowed only to trap 

 the wolves, but were strictly forbidden to interfere with the 

 hawks. The very trees on which the hawks usually built 

 were to be held sacred. Cosmo Innes has shown from the 

 " Ayr MS.," written in the reign of Eobert the Bruce, that 

 the tod (fox), whitret (ermine), mertrick (martin), wild cat, 

 and beaver must have been very common at that period, be- 

 cause their skins w^ere articles of export. The beaver has 

 long been lost ; the wild cat and the cat martin are year by 

 year becoming more rare, and are likely soon to disappear 

 altogether. Once more, the references to the fauna of Scot- 

 land in the printed or MS. records, which range from the 

 last decade of the seventh to the second of the 16th century, 

 the period of Boece, might be multiplied; but these may 

 suffice to show that while the higher forms took the attention 

 of the people, no effort was made during that long period to 

 systematise them, and little, if any, attention paid to their 

 structure and habits. The seal, and the dolphin, and the 

 whale were regarded as viviparous fishes {sunt alii vivipari, 

 ut phocm, ceti, halence). Bats were observed, but only to be 

 set down as half quadruped, half bird {medium qnid inter 



