EXTINCT FOR LONG PERIOD 37 



reports from abroad, or from a time when the 

 animal existed at home, there is nothing to 

 show.' 



As already said, all evidence, so far as it at 

 present goes, points to the probability that the 

 existence of the beaver in Scotland must be 

 referred to a very remote period. Mr. Robert- 

 son, to whom I am much indebted, writes that 

 he finds no mention of the beaver in the 

 enumeration of the animals and birds of Ireland 

 in one of the Ossianic ballads in the Book of 

 the Dean of Lismore, and concludes : 



' The impression left on my mind at present 

 by the resemblance of the Gaelic los leathann, 

 a beaver, to the Welsh llost-lydan, is that the 

 Gaels were not familiar with the animal in 

 Ireland, that they found it in Scotland on their 

 arrival there, and that they borrowed a name 

 from the native Pictish inhabitants. That view 

 may, of course, be overturned or confirmed when 

 further light is obtained on the origin of the 

 names leas-leathainn and llost-lydan! 



By far the most interesting of the various 

 dictionary references seems to be that to be found 

 in M' Alpine's Gaelic Dictionary \ ' Dobhar-chu, a 

 kind of otter which has no existence but in 

 Donald's imagination ; the price of its skin, 

 which can heal all diseases, is its full of pure 



