III. 



THE BEAVER AND SCOTTISH 

 TRADITION. 



IT is but natural that the wolf, as the most 

 recent of our extinct animals to be extirpated, 

 should have left a considerable volume of tale 

 and tradition ; but another and most interesting 

 species, the beaver, appears to have died out 

 of popular memory entirely. This animal was 

 formerly an inhabitant of England and Scot- 

 land ; and to-day it is still to be found in a 

 state of nature in several localities of the con- 

 tinent of Europe. 



That the beaver once inhabited Great Britain 

 is proved beyond doubt, not so much by the 

 written letter of history as by the discovery of 

 its remains, both in England and Scotland. 

 Singularly enough, there seems to be no record 

 of any such discovery in Ireland. The whole 

 subject has been ably and exhaustively treated 

 by Mr. J. E. Harting, 1 who shows that the 



1 Extinct British Animals-, Triibner, 1880. 

 29 



