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CASTORID.E. 



1424, c. 22., " Of the custome of furringes," he says : 

 " mertricks (martens,) fowmartes (polecats,) otters and 

 tods (foxes) are specified, but not a word is said of 

 Beavers, although these, had they existed, must have been 

 most valuable of all, not only for their furs, but for the 

 substance called castor, found in the inguinal (preputial) 

 glands of the animal, which, in those days still retained 

 some share of its ancient repute as a medicine." The 

 Beaver might, however, have become so scarce at the be- 

 ginning of the 1 5th century, as to be not worth the atten- 

 tion of the legislature. At an earlier period, towards the 

 end of the 12th century, Giraldus de Barri, in his ' Itinera- 

 rium Cambriae,' lib. ii. cap. 3, speaking of the river Teivi in 

 Cardiganshire, says, " Inter universes Cambrise seu etiam 

 Lleegrise fluvios, solus hie castores habet ;" and adds, " In 

 Albania quippe, ut fertur, fluvio similiter unico habentur 

 sed ran." From which it would appear that the Beaver still 

 existed in Scotland, but had then become a scarce animal. 



Hector Boethius, however, enumerates the Beavers, 

 'fibrif among the animals which abounded in and about 

 Loch Ness, and whose furs were in request for exportation 

 towards the end of the 15th century, when he published 

 his Description and History of Scotland. 



Dr. Walker, Professor of Natural History in the Uni- 

 versity of Edinburgh, in his ' Mammalia Scotica, 1 * states, 

 on the authority of Giraldus, that Beavers formerly existed 

 in the country ; and Mr. Neill adds, that Dr. Walker in 

 his lectures used to mention that the Scotch Highlanders 

 still retain, by tradition, a peculiar Gaelic name for the 

 animal ; this name, he was informed by Dr. Stuart of Luss, 

 is Losleathan, derived from los, the tail, point, or end of a 



* Posthumous Essays on Natural History, &c., 8vo. Edited by Mr. Charles 

 Stewart. 



