98 NOTES ON BEAVEES. 



NOTES ON BEAVERS AND THE BUTE BE A VERY. 



BY EGBERT DE HAMEL. 



[lend heforc thr Sacirti/, Fehntiirii 14th, 1882. 



Amongst the Mammalia is a most interestiug group of animals, 

 many species of which exist or have existed in Great Britain, whose 

 domestic economy is to a large extent unobserved owing to their 

 extreme timidity and consequent shy and nocturnal habits, albeit their 

 names ai-e for the most part familiar to us. I refer to the order 

 Rodentia, or gnawing animals, which includes the various genera of rat, 

 mouse, squirrel, hare, rabbit, porcupine, capybara, guinea-pig, and the 

 subject of my present paper, the beaver. 



The chief characteristics of this order are the incisor teeth in the 

 centre of each jaw, the absence of canine teeth, and the wide space 

 between the incisor and molar teeth, an arrangement admirably 

 qualifying them for gnawing solid substances, to which end the 

 incisors are enamelled only on the front surface, so that the back part 

 being softer is by gnawing worn away fastest, and the cutting edge 

 kept sharp. To remedy the loss of substance a constant growth takes 

 place from the root ; they are, moreover, semicircular in form, three- 

 fourths of which being buried in the jaw adds enormously to their 

 power. The molar teeth are broad and calculated for masticating 

 vegetable food ; the articulation of the lower jaw works in a longi- 

 tudinal groove in the skull, affording great facilities for grinding their 

 food : the feet are furnished with toes and nails, and are more or less 

 webbed ; the fore paws are remarkably haudlike, the hind legs much 

 the longest. 



I shall now confine my observations to the " species " Beaver, and 

 endeavour, first, to point out to you such of its life-history as I have 

 been able to gather from the many writers on the subject, following 

 these particulars with a description of what I witnessed on the occasion 

 of a special visit paid to the Marquis of Bute's beavery at Mount 

 Stuart, near Rothesay, in the island of Bute, at the latter end of 

 August, 1878. 



The eai'liest notice we have of the beaver occurs during the 9th 

 century, where we find that whilst an otter's skin was only worth 

 twelve pence, that of the Llosdlydan or beaver was valued at one 

 hundred and twenty pence. 



This animal was not uncommon in the rivers of Wales towards the 

 close of the 12th century. Giraldus Cambrensis informs us that the 

 species became extinct in 1188, but according to some historians it was 

 a native of Scotland and England until the 15th century. It has not 

 been found in Ireland, or any trace of its existence recorded there. 



