192 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



choked-up channel in the Fens ; while discoloured 

 bones and teeth have frequently been found in the 

 superficial deposits of Lincolnshire and Cambridge- 

 shire. The date of the extermination of the beaver 

 in England will probably never be known ; the 

 animal was, however, recorded from South Wales 

 (Cardiganshire) as late as 1188, and from Scotland 

 in 1150. 



On the continent of Europe the present species 

 has been known from very early times, Herodotus 

 states that it inhabited a large lake in the country of 

 the Budini, a Scythian tribe who lived on the Upper 

 Don ; Aristotle and Pliny both notice the beaver. 

 In Latium, the River Fibrenus was so named from 

 the beavers (fiber) which frequented it; and the map 

 of Europe is dotted over with names bearing similar 

 significance. Biberach or Biberbach in Swabia 

 Biberha, Biber, Bebra, Beberbeke and Bever in 

 Germany; Bober in Silesia and Lithuania; and Bievre 

 in France are cases in point. People were even 

 named after the animal ; witness the surnames of 

 BobrofT in Russia, Bobrowski in Poland, Bieber in 

 Germany, De Bievra in France, Beever and Beevor 

 in England. Probably no wild animal was so widely 

 diffused or so well known in the old days as this 

 valuable and interesting creature ; Napoleon himself 

 did not mark the map of Europe as did this timid 

 and obscure rodent. 



The usefulness of the European beaver proved its 



