Mn. K. BROWN ON THE BEATER. 371 



Britain have now been decided to belong to the latter species, 

 which is, I believe, not yet altogether extinct in Scandinavia *. 

 We have, however, historical accounts of its former abundance in 

 this country ; and I cannot better conclude these desultory notices 

 than by recapitulating the information we possess regarding it as 

 a former inliabitant of the British Isles, referring for a more 

 particular account of it as a Scottish animal, extinct within his- 

 toric periods, to Dr. Charles Wilson's 'Eesearches on Castoreum 

 and the Beaver in Scotland.' The earliest notice of it we know 

 is in the ninth century, viz. in the Welsh Laws of Hywel Dha f, 

 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 times 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 Barri (or, as he is variously 

 called, Sylvester Griraldus or Giraldus Cambriensis), in his droll 

 account of the itineration he made through Wales, in company 

 with Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury (who journeyed thither 

 in order to stir up 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 

 Hay's time many of the places in the neighbourhood of the river 

 bore the name of Llynyrafrange, 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 ihejibri, or 

 Beavers, with perfect confidence 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 further, 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 



* NiijSson : Skandinavisk Fauna, Forsta Delen, Daggdjuren, ss. 409-427. 

 t Leges Wallica?. 



