The Zoologist — January, 1870, 1971 



Dha,* where we read of it even then as a rare or valued animal of the 

 chase ; for while the marten's skin is valued at twenty-four pence, the 

 otter's at only twelve pence, that of the llosdlydan, or beaver, is valued 

 at the great sum of one hundred and twenty pence, or at five limes 

 the price of the marten's, or ten times the price of the otter's. It thus 

 seems, even in the times of the Heptarchy, to have been on the decrease ; 

 its sun had early begun to set. In the year 1158 Giraldus de Bairi 

 (or as he is variously called, Sylvester Giraldus or Giraldus Cambri- 

 ensis), in his droll account of ihe itineration he made through Wales, 

 in company with Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury (who journeyed 

 thither in order to stir np the Welsh to join in the Crusades, and 

 who afterwards followed the train of Richard Coeur de Leon, and fell 

 before Acre), tells us that in his day it was only found on the river 

 Teivi, in Cardiganshire, and gives a curious account of its habits, 

 derived in part from his own observations. In .John Ray's time many 

 of the places in the naighbourhood of the river bore the name of 

 Llyinjraf range, or the Beaver Lake, and, for all we know to the 

 contrary, may to this day. About the same time it was probably 

 known in Scotland, but only as a rare animal. Hector Boece (or 

 Boethius, as his name has been Latinized), that shrewd old father of 

 Scottish historians, enumerates ihe Jibri, or beavers, with perfect con- 

 fidence as among the inhabitants of Loch Ness, whose fur was in 

 request for exportation towards the close of the fifteenth century ; and 

 he even goes furl her, and talks of an "incomparable number," though 

 perhaps he may be only availing himself of a privilege which moderns 

 have taken the liberty of granting to mediaeval authors when dealing 

 with curious facts. Bellenden, in a translation of Boethius's " Croniklis 

 of Scotland,' which he undertook, at the request of James VI., about 

 the middle of the sixteenth century, while omitting stags, roe-deer and 

 even otters, in his anxiety for accuracy, mentions " bevers," without 

 the slightest hesitation : — " Many wyld hors and among game are 

 mony marlrikis (Pine Martens), bevers, quhitredis (Weasels) and 

 loddis (Foxes) : ihe Jurrings and skynnis of thame are coft (bought) 

 with grel price amang uncouth (foreign) merchandise It is, however, 

 more than probable that the worthy historians were influenced by a 

 little national pride when they recorded the beaver as an inhabitant 

 of Loch Ness in the fifteenth century, as no mention is made of it in 

 an Act dated June, 1424, though Martricks, Fourmarles (Polecats), 

 Otters, and Toddis are specified. They were perhaps so strongly 



* Lfges WallicsB. 



