Natural Sistonj and Hunting of the Beaver. 63 



whose fur was in request for exportation toward the close of the 

 fifteenth century ; and he even goes further, and talks of an " incom- 

 parable number," though perhaps he may be only availing himself of 

 a privilege which moderns have taken the liberty of granting to 

 mediaeval authors when dealing with curious facts. Belleudan, in a 

 translation of Boethius' -'Croniklis of Scotland," which he undertook 

 at the request of James YI., about the middle of the sixteenth cen- 

 tury, while omitting stags, roedeer, and even otters, in his anxi^ety 

 for accuracy, mentions " bevers," without the slightest hesitation — 

 " 3Iony ivyld hors and amang yamc are mony matrikis (pine martens), 

 bevers, quhitredis (weasels) and toddis (foxes) the furrhujs and shja- 

 nis of thame are coft (bought) ivlth rjret jjrice amang uncouth (foreign) 

 merchandis." It is, however, more than probable that the worthy his- 

 torians were influenced by a little national pride when they recorded 

 the beaver as an inhabitant of Loch Ness in the fifteenth century, as 

 no mention is made of it in an act dated June, 1424, though martrich, 

 furmartes (polecats), otters and toddis are specified. They were, 

 perhaps, so strongly impressed by the wide-spread tradition of its 

 existence in foi-mer days, as to be led to enumerate it among the ani- 

 mals of Scotland in those times ; and it may be mentioned in passing 

 that both worthies boast immoderately of the productions of their 

 country. At the beginning of this century (at least) the Highlanders 

 of Scotland had a peculiar name for the animal— Losleathan or 

 Dobhrau losleathan, " the broad-tailed otter." According to Dr. 

 Stuart, of Luss, in a letter to the late Dr. Neill, quoted by Prof. 

 Fleming, a tradition used to exist that the beaver or "broad-tailed 

 otter" once abounded in Lochaber. That may be so or not ; but at 

 all events it does not now exist anywhere within the bounds of the 

 British islands ; and a considerable doubt might be still thrown on 

 the accounts of the old writers, were not remains continually dug up 

 in all parts of the country. I would finn hope that in a few years it 

 may agnin be an inhabitant of our lakes and rivers. 



The Cincinnati Group. 

 The Cincinnati Group is now an established technical terra to desig- 

 nate that part of the Lower Silurian formation exposed in the West- 

 ern States that was formerly called either the Trenton limestone, ov 

 the Hudson River Group. It is the equivalent of the Hudson Eiver 

 Group, and probably part or all of the Trenton Group. The black 

 slate or Utica shale found in New York and in Canada, between the 

 Trenton and Hudson Eiver Groups, is wanting in the Western States, 

 and it is therefore impracticable to have the same classification, as 

 many fossils are common to both groups. 



