Mr Harvic-Broion on the Squirrel in Great Britain. 51 



had any other individual of whom I asked." And, even 

 though the most correct are liable to err, I can hardly con- 

 ceive that had the species been present in those portions of 

 Braemar and Deeside which Macgillivray traversed, that such 

 a prominent, easily described and identified species would 

 have escaped the notice of all ; nor do I think would such a 

 careful naturalist as Macgillivray be likely to be led from his 

 inquiries, merely by these erroneous local names. 



As will be seen further on, however, there is some reason 

 to believe that the squirrel may have lingered in the higher 

 parts of Don, as the records of its lingering in Strathspey, 

 though not actually continuous, very nearly approach to 

 being so ; but the evidence otherwise is decidedly against its 

 continuous presence in Upper Don. A correspondent on 

 Don-side informs me that "the oldest inhabitants have no 

 traditions regarding it. I am sure it was extinct in this dis- 

 trict until about twenty years ago ; they came up Don-side. 

 There is no place in the neighbourhood of the name of 

 Feorag." 



That the country must have been eminently suited to its 

 requirements in past times there can be scarcely any doubt, for 

 even at the present day we find very abundant indications of 

 the native pine forest reaching far up the hill sides, almost, in 

 one place, to the immediate base of Ben Muic-dhu ; and, per- 

 haps, nowhere in Scotland will we find such extensive traces 

 of the old Caledonian forest as we do among the hills which 

 cluster round the valleys of the Dee and Don. The Gaelic 

 topography of the district, which has retained its purity of 

 pronunciation almost intact in the Upper parts of Dee, also 

 teaches us something of the limits of the old forest in 

 past ages, for we find the " Glen of the fir-trees " — Glen 

 Guithsach — far away on the shoulder of Cairn Toul, 

 and stretching away beyond, over the ridge, the great forest of 

 Eothiemurchus extends into Strathspey. 



The occurrence of a locality called Cam Feorag cannot, 

 perhaps, alone be accepted as evidence of its early presence 

 with any degree of certainty. The name Feorag, however, was 

 well enough understood by the Highlanders of Braemar, where 

 topography is believed to have descended in its Gaelic purity. 



