MAMMALS. 
EXTINCT MAMMALIA. 
Having thus endeavoured to describe the geographical position 
and areas, and the physical aspects of the two counties, and having 
also treated of their position in relation to the other faunal areas 
of Scotland, we proceed to speak of the vertebrate fauna, and as 
is customary, besides being in accordance with their natural posi- 
tion, we commence this portion with the Mammalia. 
The oft-quoted passage in Sir Eobert Gordon's Earldom of 
Sutherland (1630) must, we fear, do duty again, as being about 
the earliest — and also almost the latest — record of two pre-exist- 
ing species of Mammalia. Sir Eobert Gordon's list contains "Eeid 
Deir and Eoes, Woidffs, Foxes, Wyld Catts, Brocks, Skuyrells,^ 
Whitretts, Weasels, Otters, Martrixes, Hares, and Foumarts " (the 
italics are ours). 
According to tradition, wolves were at one time so abundant in 
Sutherland that the natives of the west coast buried all their dead 
on the island of Handa, to avoid their disinterment by them 
( Voyage round Scotland, p. 347). Mr. Scrope instances accounts 
of four old wolves and several whelps which were all killed about 
the same time, but in different places, between the years 1690 and 
1700. The localities named are Achumore in Assynt, Halladale, 
and Glen Loth, the latter being the locality of the veritable " last 
wolf " of the county. " These," says Mr. Scrope, " were the last 
wolves killed in Sutherlandshire, and the den was between Craig 
1 For proofs of its extinction and subsequent restoration, see The History of 
the Squirrel in Scotland, by J. A. Harvie-Brown. — (Proc. Royal Physical Society, 
vol. vi., 1881, pp. 59 and 164). 
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