122 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



or opened it on purpose,* and the squirrels quickly escaped 

 to the woods, to the no small vexation of Mr Goodall. 

 That," continues Mr Dunn, '*is the history of the intro- 

 duction of the squirrel to the south, as given to me last 

 Saturday by Mr Inglis, and I have no reason to doubt his 

 statements. In fact he told me all about this some three 

 years ago, when I happened to be talking to him about the 

 injury done by squirrels to some trees in the park (Dalkeith), 

 and when I asked him on Saturday, he repeated the whole, in, 

 I believe, almost the same words as when he first told me." 



As we have seen, they became so abundant by 1835, that 

 orders went forth for their destruction at Wolfelee, near 

 Hawick ; but there is no record of their reaching southward 

 at all, until we find that in 1841, "squirrels latterly have 

 been seen in the woods " of Hobkirk parish,*!* a few miles 

 south of Minto. J 



There is no mention of squirrels in Wallis' " Nat. History 

 of ]^orthumberland," written in 1768 (p. 405), and even, as 

 late as 1868, Tate {op. cit.) mentions that it had not then 

 reached into East Northumberland. 



No doubt the range of the Cheviots would, together with 

 the natural disinclination of the species to travel southwards, 

 deter them from a rapid extension into Northumberland. Mr 

 A. Brotherston, of Kelso, considers that the most likely routes 

 they followed from Minto into Northumberland was down 

 the Teviot (north-east) to Jed-foot ; then up the Jed valley, — 

 most of which is wooded, — less or more ; across the border by 

 the road over Carter Fell to the head of Eede Water in 



* Corroborative of this, curiously enough, I have another account from 

 quite another source, which states: "It — the introduction — was due to a 

 gardener at Minto of the name of Crichton, wJio let go two pairs from a cage " 

 (Mr Smail enclosing a letter from Mr John Steele, factor at Minto, dated 24th 

 December 1878), and I have other corroborative evidence besides. 



+ "New Stat. Acct." of count}^ p. 211. 



J Unless indeed we accept Mr Jerdon's record ("Zoologist," 1843, p. 348), as 

 applying to the south of the county also. He says {op. cit.), " Not common 

 in Roxburgh until lately. "Within the last ten years (say since 1833) or so, 

 its numbers have much increased, and it is now spread over nearly the whole 

 county." In 1845, a few are reported to have existed in the county, "but 

 not plentiful," which remark probably applies to some of the outlying districts 

 of the county. 



