676 CASTORIDA—CASTOR 
The Beaver has apparently given rise to a fair number of English 
place-names. Thus we have the name (and arms) of the town of 
Beverley, Yorkshire; Bevercoates, Notts; Beversbrook, Wilts; Bever- 
stone, Gloucestershire; the Barbourne or Beaverbourne, associated 
with Beaver Island and Beverege, Worcestershire ; and Beverley Brook, 
Battersea (mentioned as Beferzth in an original charter, dated A.D. 693). 
With regard to Scotland the documentary evidence is less satis- 
factory than that respecting Wales. The earliest record appears to be 
that described by E. R. Alston as follows:—“In a capitular of export 
duties of David I., 1124-1153, skins of Beverzs are included (Acts Parl. 
Scot. i., 303); but they are not mentioned in a similar Act of 1424. 
The late Prof. Cosmo Innes, however, pointed out to me that too much 
trust must not be given to these documents, as the lists of commodities 
appear in some cases to have been adopted from similar English or 
foreign enactments.” 
Notwithstanding the non-appearance of the Beaver in the Act of 
1424, Boethius, in 1526, included it in his list of the animals which 
abounded around Loch Ness, and whose furs were in request for 
exportation ; and Bellenden, who published a vernacular translation of 
Boethius in 1536, accepted the “ Bevers,” although he omitted the stags, 
roe-deer, and otters of the original list. Little can be based upon this, 
however, for, as Neill pointed out (of. czz., 179), Bellenden’s translation 
shows carelessness and looseness ; moreover, Boethius himself may have 
quoted the Beaver merely from hearsay. In 1684 Sibbald contented 
himself with saying :—‘“Boethius dicit fibrum seu castorem in Scotia 
reperiri; an nunc reperiatur, nescio.” 
Some further evidence that the Beaver survived in Scotland until 
the historic period may perhaps be found in the Losleathan tradition. 
Neill (of. c¢¢., 181) says that Walker used to mention in his lectures that 
“the Scots Highlanders still retain, by tradition, a peculiar Gaelic name 
for the animal.” This was confirmed by Dr Stuart of Luss, a well- 
known Celtic scholar, who in a letter to Neill wrote:—“ The name is 
Losleathan, derived from /os, the tail, point, or end of a thing, and 
leathan, broad; or dobhran losleathan, the broad-tailed otter.” Stuart 
added that he “recollected to have heard” of a tradition among the 
Highlanders “that the beaver, or broad-tailed otter, once abounded in 
Lochaber.” As Neill says, “It is rather a puzzling circumstance, that, 
in the poems of Ossian, no mention should occur of the /os/eathan, an 
animal whose manners must have struck with admiration a rude 
people, and whose fur must have been invaluable in the eyes of the 
Fingalian heroes and their ladies.” C. H. Alston, in his review of 
recent inquiries respecting this tradition, says:—“To the most 
intelligent and well-informed Gaelic-speaking Highlanders of to-day 
the words Dobhar-chu or Dobhran-losleathan appear to have but the 
