266 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
or the oral testimony of travellers, who themselves perhaps 
had only second-hand information to impart, and were doubtless 
frequently imposed upon. 
Then again, except by the process of embalming, known only 
to a few, they had no method of preserving shinale so as to 
enable their transportation to a distance. They had to rely 
upon descriptions given from memory, or upon very crude 
drawings not always taken from life, and therefore often very in- 
accurate. Under these circumstances it is not surprising that we 
should discover in their works a good deal of fiction ; we should 
perhaps rather wonder at there being so much truth in what has 
come down to us; the more so when we reflect that even at the 
present day there is a vast amount of popular misconception 
concerning some of the commonest animals, which is only very 
slowly being cleared away,—so difficult is it to eradicate popular 
delusions which have once firmly taken hold of the public mind. 
In the Beaver, about which I propose to say something 
to-day, we have just one of those animals which, imperfectly 
known to the ancients, would be most likely, from its singular 
conformation, to give rise to all sorts of curious speculations 
amongst those who had never seen one, or were unacquainted 
with its real habits and mode of life. 
In the days when Whales were regarded as fish aa indeed, 
they are nowadays by many uninformed persons) it was perhaps 
not unnatural to suppose that this curious animal, with a tail 
quite unique of its kind amongst mammals, might have some 
relationship to a fish, a surmise which would be strengthened by 
its reported aquatic habits. 
A curious little work, entitled ‘The History of Brutes ; or a 
description of Living Creatures, wherein the Nature and 
Properties of four-footed Beasts are at large described,’ was 
translated into English in 1670 from the Latin (1665) of Dr. 
Franzius, Professor of Divinity in the University of Witteberg, a 
man (as his translator tells us) famous in his time for his great 
learning. In this volume (p. 222) we find the following quaint 
account of the Beaver :— 
“This is an amphibious creature, hath four feet, two of a dog 
and two of a goose ; his fore part is hairy; he hath a long, broad, 
ruggid tail, like the tail of a fish; his feet are skinny, which 
maketh him swim with a great deal of ease; he cannot dive 
