181 
Mr Neill cm the Beavers (^Scotland, 
wood, may still be found marked, in some popular books, as a 
native of the Scottish Highlands, although a century has elapsed 
since it ceased to be heard in our pine forests. 
Sir Robert Sibbald does not, on this topic, show any of that 
^precision, and zeal for inquiry, which characterize many other 
parts of his writings. He contents himself with referring to 
Boece, in proof of the beaver having formerly been found in 
Scotland, and adds, with seeming indifference, An nunc re- 
periatur nescio It should however be remembered, as a 
partial justification of this apparent remissness, that, at the pe- 
riod in which he wrote, the upper or western parts of the coun- 
ties of Aberdeen and Inverness, the reputed haunts of the bea- 
ver, were difficult of access to a degree now scarcely to be con- 
ceived, An enlightened Legislature and Government, by libe- 
rally promoting the formation of commodious roads in almost 
every direction through the Highlands, have converted into a 
safe and easy tour of a fortnight, what would, in Sibbald’s time, 
have been regarded as a kind of summer’s journey, fraught with 
no little danger. 
O 
No modern writer on the natural history of Scotland, seems 
to have examined the subject. The late Dr Walker, Professor 
of Natural History in the University of Edinburgh, in his 
Mammalia Scotica merely states, that beavers formerly 
existed in this country, but are now wholly extinct, and makes 
an allusion to the passage already quoted from Giraldus. In 
his lectures, however, the Doctor used to mention, that the 
Scots Highlanders still retain, by tradition, a peculiar Gaelic 
name for the animal. 
In order to satisfy myself with regard to the value of this 
traditionary evidence, I applied to the venerable and learned 
Dr Stuart of Luss, — a gentleman distinguished both as a natu- 
ralist and a Celtic scholar, — who was the friend and fellow-tra- 
veller of Pennant and of Lightfoot in their principal excursions 
through Scotland, and who has devoted a great part of his 
life to the laborious and important task of translating the Sa^ 
* Scotia Illustrata, Pars II. lib. iii. p. 10. 
"I" Posthumo\is EsFays on Natural History, &c, 8vo, p. 490. edited by IMr 
Charles Stewart. - - 
