DESTRUCTION FOR SKINS AND OIL 



157 



THE BEAVER 



Rarest and most interesting of all Scotland's fur-bearers 

 was the Beaver (Castor fiber] (Fig. 37). Of its presence 

 throughout the country in days long gone by, there is 

 indubitable evidence, for its remains have been found in 

 the deposits of ancient lakes in which it disported itself 

 before man's advent to North Britain. From the Solway to 

 Perthshire in these days the Beaver was common. Its 



Fig. 37. European Beaver exterminated in Scotland, j 1 ^ nat. size. 



remains have been found in Dumfriesshire, and in a peat 

 moss at Kimmerghame in the parish of Edrom, Berwick- 

 shire, many bones were discovered in 1818 together with a 

 well preserved skull. Linton Loch in Roxburghshire has 

 also yielded a Beaver's skull, preserved in Kelso Museum, 

 and in the marl of the loch of Marlee, in Kinloch parish, 

 Perthshire, a skeleton was discovered of which the skull and 

 one of the haunch bones were presented to the Society of 

 Antiquaries of Scotland in 1788. Of its continued presence 

 in the Lowlands during man's tenancy of the country the 



