02 Natural History and Hunting of the Beaver. 



greatly to the amusement of the Indians. It would then attempt 

 vigorously to eject the owner of the articles. Its "weakness" for gnaw- 

 ing exhibited itself in a very ^unpleasant manner ; for occasionally, in 

 the morning, the whole of the furniture was prostrate, the beaver hav- 

 ing gnawed through the legs of the tables and chairs ! 



This leads jue to remark that the beaver might be easily natu- 

 ralized again in Britain ; and though I can not recommend them in 

 the light of a drawing-room pet, yet I can conceive no more pleas- 

 ant inhabitant of our lakes and rivers. We must remember 

 that at one time the beaver was an inhabitant of these islands, 

 but became nearly extinct. This was, of course, not the Castor 

 Gmadensis, but the C. fiber, Linn. ; for the remains found in 

 Britain have now been decided to befong to the latter species, which is, 

 I believe, not yet altogether extinct in Scandinavia. We have, however, 

 historical accounts of its former abundance in this country ; and I can 

 not better conclude these desultory notices than by recapitulating the 

 information we possess regarding it as a former inhabitant of the 

 British Isles, referring for a inore particular account of it as a Scottish 

 animal, extinct within historic periods, to Dr. Charles Wilson's " Ke- 

 searches on Castoreum and the Beaver in Scotland." The earliest 

 notice of it we know is in the ninth century, viz., in the Welsh Laws 

 of Hywel Dha, where we read of it even then as a rare or valued 

 animal of the chase ; for while the marten's skin is valued at twenty- 

 four pence, the otter's at only twelve pence, that of the Llosdlydan, 

 or beaver, is valued at the great sum of one hundred ai\d twenty 

 pence, or at five times the price of the marten's, or ten times the price 

 of the Otter's. It thus seems, even in the times of the heptarchy, to 

 have been on the decrease ; its sun had early begun to set. In the 

 year 1158, Giraldus de Barri (or, as he is variously called, Sylvester 

 Giraldus, or Giraldus Cambriensis), in his droll account of the itinera- 

 tion he made through Wales, in company with Baldwin, Archbishop 

 of Canterbury (Avho journeyed thither in order to stir up the Welsh 

 to join in the Crusades, and who afterward followed the train of Rich- 

 ard Coeur de Leon, and fell before Acre), tells us that in his day it 

 was only found on the river Teivi, in Cardiganshire, and gives a 

 curious account of its habits, derived in part from his own observa- 

 tions. In John Ray's time many of the places in the neighborhood of 

 the river bore the name of Llymjraf range, or the Beaver Lake, and 

 for all we know to the contrary, may to this day. About the same 

 time it was i:)robably known in Scotland, but only as a rare animal. 

 Hector Boece (or Boethius, as his name has been Latinized), that 

 shrewd old father of Scottish historians, enumerates the fihri, or bea- 

 vers, with perfect confidence, as among the inliabitants of Loch IS^ess, 



