In Feb 1829, Alexander Fraser “An t-Iasgair bàn” of Dochnalurg near #Inverness, tied wire tags around the tails of young salmon heading downstream. When he caught the same fish as adults in 1830, he proved that salmon return to their home stream to breed.
In 1813, the Campbells of Jura set about removing all eagle nests from the island after a swaddled newborn was snatched from nearby Scarba, carried over the Corryvreckan, and put down on Jura. The child survived with only minor injuries.
Twa Camels in Edinburgh:
In January 1659 a dromedary camel was brought to the Canongate in Edinburgh. Crowds paid 3 pence a head to see the “heich great beast callit ane Drummodary”. Probably the 1st camel in Scotland outside royal menageries of old.
Charles I had a camel his menagerie in Edinburgh in 1633. John Grahame got it on a 6 month lease “to carie said camel throughout the Kingdome an show the people by towcke of drum or sound of trumpet” but not “upon the Sabboth day”.
In 1500, at Glenconie, Hugh Fraser (Hutcheon Friseal) shot a beast “mair nor twa eln o length, without feet, having ane mickle fin on ilk side, ane tail, an ane terrible head”.
It “brint all to the eird, as it had been muirburn”.
“they callit it ane DRAGON”
TOD-TYKE. n. A fox-dog hybrid valued for its herding and hunting ability. Gallovidians would tie their dogs outside fox dens in hopes of getting tod-tyke pups. Trouble is, no such hybrid is possible in nature!
For folk in Caithness and Sutherland the largest beast in the ocean was the cirean-cròin, a leviathan sea dinosaur that could eat 7 killer whales at a go. An old Gàidhlig rhyme told of its relative size to other creatures:
Seachd sgadain sath bradain,
Seachd bradain sath roin,
Seachd roin sath mial-mor-mara,
Seachd mial sath Cirein-croinSeven herrings a salmon’s meal
Tradtional Gaelic rhyme
Seven salmon a seal’s meal,
Seven seals a whale’s meal,
Seven whales the meal of a Cirein-croin.
Fisherfolk across Old Weird Scotland thought every being on land had a “partner” found in the sea.
SEA-FUTRET – cuttlefish (“sea weasel/ferret”)
SEA-COCK – puffin
SEA-PYOT – oystercatcher (“sea-magpie”)
SEA-SOU – ballan wrasse
SEA-PHEASANT – turbot
SEA-GOOSEBERRY – jellyfish