Mr Harvie- Brown on the Squirrel in Great Britain. 45 



to 1791, if indeed they ever were indigenous, as no mention 

 is made of them in a very full and careful list of the animals 

 of Luss Parish, in the " Old Statistical Account." * 



We must not be misled, either, by the passage in the "New 

 Statistical Account " of the parish of Eow, which states that 

 " amongst the animals which have become less common in 

 many places, there are occasionally found the roe and the 

 squirrel," etc. These do not indicate the former distribution, 

 but are no doubt fresh arrivals, as squirrels reappeared in 

 Dumbartonshire at Luss in 1831, as I am informed by John 

 Colquhoun, Esq. 



Argyleshire. 



It is well known that the district about Glenorchy and 

 eastward, as well as much of the country around the north 

 end of Loch Awe, and probably an even more extensive dis- 

 trict, was covered with extensive woods of pine and oak,*!- 

 which were subsequently burned down by order of the Govern- 

 ment, in order to rid the country of wolves. J There was an 

 extensive forest also in Glen Etive, continuous with that 



* This list is one of the fullest given in any of the numerous accounts of 

 the parishes by the clergymen, and, from internal evidence, appears to be sin- 

 gularly correct and reliable. The author was the Rev. John Stuart, minister 

 of Luss, a very eminent Gaelic scholar, who translated the Scriptures into the 

 Gaelic language, and also a learned botanist and naturalist, of whom we find 

 honourable mention made in Lightfoot's " Flora Scotica," and who accom- 

 panied Lightfoot in his tour, and who is the authority for the Gaelic names 

 in Pennant's "Caledonian Zoology." A connection informs me that people of 

 kindred tastes came great distances to visit him when at Luss. He was a 

 native of Breadalbane. 



+ See also Stuart's "Lays of the Deer Forest," vol. ii., pp. 231, 232. 



X In the district there appears to be a belief current that the reason of the 

 destruction of the woods was not really so much to get rid of wolves and wild 

 beasts as to prevent an over-drug of timber in the market. The company 

 which is understood to have purchased the timber, after cutting and floating 

 away, via Loch Awe and the river Awe, all that tliey required or found it 

 profitable to cut and remove, set fire to the remainder, to prevent other later 

 comers from overcrowding the market. This tradition was related to me by 

 a very intelligent boatman on Loch Awe ; and he further told me that his 

 great-grandfather " remembered when all the country around Loch Awe was 

 covered with pine woods. This," he continued, "would be quite two hundred 

 years ago." Some remains of this old pine wood may still be seen upon the 

 slope of Ben Cruachan, above the Pass of Brander, and upon the islets of 

 Loch Awe. 



