Mr Harvie-Broivn on the Squirrel in Great Britain. 169 



deep water and swim,* nor have I been able satisfactorily to 

 authenticate any of the related occurrences of the squirrel 

 crossing canals or rivers upon blocks or chips of wood, 

 although many of these are related with minuteness of detail, 

 having an apparent genuineness and authenticity. My strong 

 conviction is, that all these instances only illustrate a popular 

 superstition, acquired originally by the earlier writers, who 

 were puzzled to account for the crossing of rivers by the 

 species, and who forgetting or ignoring the fords or rocks left 

 bare in time of drought by which they crossed, thus ac- 

 counted for it. These accounts, quoted and re-quoted, we 

 find even adhered to at the present time. 



I find that rivers in some localities have been most effec- 

 tual in barring their advance, whilst others have not in any 

 way affected it, and an examination into the circumstances 

 in many of these instances has shown that only where the 

 rivers are deep and unfordable have the squirrels failed to 



* Since writing the above, however, I have received satisfactory proof of the 

 squirrel swimming. On August 12th, 1880, a very hot, still day, three ladies 

 and a collie were idling in a boat on Loch Voil. The loch was glassy calm, 

 and their attention was attracted by a ripple in the water about 200 yards off", 

 as of some small animal swimming across towards them. They rowed towards 

 it, and found it to be a squirrel steadily making its way to the opposite shore. 

 They rowed so that it might pass as close as possible, and kept quite still — so 

 close that it clambered up the bow and sat panting and chattering on the 

 gunwale, evidently tired with its swim. The collie began to get excited, and 

 was with some difficulty kept quiet ; however, the squirrel evidently suspected 

 some evil, for after sitting about three minutes it dropped over the side, 

 holding on to the gunwale, so that only its head showed. The ladies then 

 began to row gently towards the sliore it had been making for, but it dropped 

 off", and again steadily swam for the point it had at first been making for, and 

 which they had slightly passed. They saw it safely land on a rock and 

 scramble up. The loch is about a quarter of a mile broad, and the squirrel 

 was about three-parts of the way across when first seen swimming from north 

 to south. It appeared like a strip of fur on the water; head very erect, the 

 tail being most noticeable ; the straightness of its course marked by its wake 

 being remarkable. This is the only instance, which I consider perfectly 

 authentic of the British squirrel having been seen swimming ; and it is the 

 only instance I have come across of the squirrel migrating over a lai-ge extent 

 of surface in a southerly direction. The note, originally published by JVlr 

 Godwin Austen, in " Nature," 1881, is therefore most interesting. We find, 

 however, a perfect ])arallel in the habit of other species of Sciurus, as it is 

 well known that certain species of American Sciurid?e swim freely across rivers 

 and lakes. 



