278 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
Britain in the tenth century. We learn from the code of Welsh 
laws made by Howel Dha, a.p. 940, that at that date the Beaver 
was one of the animals of whose fur the king’s garments were 
made, the fur of the Marten and Ermine being also employed, 
and that the value of a Beaver’s skin was fixed at 120 pence, 
that of a Marten being only 24 pence. This shows that even at 
that period the Beaver was considered rare. But although 
scarce, it had not become extinct in Wales even 250 years later. 
For in 1188, when Giraldus Cambrensis travelled through Wales, 
in company with Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury, he found 
Beavers in the River Teivi, in Cardiganshire, and in the 
‘Itinerary ’ which he wrote, and which has fortunately been pre- 
served to us, he has left a curious account of their habits, derived 
partly from report and partly from his own observation. His 
description of the animals and of their mode of building their 
“ castles,’ as he terms them, with great boughs which they cut 
with their teeth, leaves no ruom for doubt that it was the Beaver 
and not the Otter to which he referred. 
The Welsh had two names for it, Avane or Afange, signifying 
“ yviver-dog” and Llostlydan or “ broad-tail,” and there are several 
places not only in Cardiganshire, but also in Montgomeryshire 
and Caernarvonshire, which are named after the Beaver, the 
Welsh names signifying ‘‘the Beaver’s Pool,” “the Beaver’s 
Dam,” and “ the Vale of the Beavers.” 
The Highlanders, too, had a peculiar name for the Beaver, 
namely, Losleathan, or Dobhran losleathan, the Broad-tailed 
Otter ; and the tradition current in some parts of Scotland, that 
it formerly existed in that country, is confirmed by the discovery 
of its remains in various Scottish localities. Giraldus, indeed, 
in 1188, had heard of the alleged existence of Beavers in one 
river in Scotland, but was informed that they were then very 
scarce there. 
Some confirmatory evidence of their presence in Scotland 
about that period is afforded by the fact that in the enumeration 
of furs upon which duty had to be paid on exportation at Scotch 
ports, in the reign of David I. (1124—1153), besides Fox, Stoat, 
or Ermine, Marten, and Wild Cat, mention is specially made in 
all the MSS. of the skins of Beaver and Sable, the latter being 
probably the Polecat. And among the export duties licensed to ~ 
be levied at Newcastle-on-Tyne in the time of Henry I. 
