372 M». B. BBOWN ON THE BEAVEB. 



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

 the middle of the sixteenth century, while omitting Stags, Eoe- 

 deer, and even Otters, in hi^ anxiety for accuracy, mentions 

 "Bevers," without the slightest hesitation: — "Monywyld Tiors 

 and amang yame are mony martrikis (Pine Martens), bevers, quhi- 

 tredis (Weasels) and toddis (Poxes) the furrings and skynnis of 

 thame are coft (bought) with gret price amang uncouth (foreign) 

 merchandis." 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, Fourmarfes (Polecats), Otters, and Toddis are 

 specified. They were perhaps so strongly impressed by the wide- 

 spread tradition of its existence in former days, as to be led to 

 enumerate it among the animals of Scotland in those times ; and 

 it may be mentioned in passing that both worthies boast immo- 

 derately of the productions of their country. At the beginning 

 of this century (at least) the Highlanders of Scotland had a 

 peculiar name for the animal — Losleathan or Dobhran losleathan, 

 "the Broad-tailed Otter." According to Dr. Stuart, of Luss, in 

 a letter to the late Dr. Neill, quoted by Prof. Fleming *, a tradi- 

 tion used to exist that the Beaver or "Broad-tailed Otter," 

 once abounded in Lochaber. That may be so or not; but 

 at all events it does not now exist anywhere w^ithin the bounds 

 of the British islands ; and a considerable doubt might be still 

 thrown on the accounts of the old writers, were not remains con- 

 tinually dug up in all parts of the country. I would fain hope 

 that in a few years it may again be an inhabitant of our lakes and 

 rivers. 



In these scattered notes I have not attempted anything like a 

 systematic history of the animal, leaving the separate accounts to 

 tell their own tales. No more pleasing work could, however, be 

 written than a Monograph of the Beaver, anatomically and histo- 

 rically ; and I trust that before long it may be undertaken by 

 some one at once an artist and a naturalist f. 



» Edin. Phil. Journ. 1838. 



f [This wish has been in some respects anticipated in a volume, * The Ame- 

 rican Beaver and liis Works,' by Lewis H. Morgan : Pliiladelpliia, 1868. It 

 had not fallen into Mr. Brown's or my hands when this paper was read. — J. 



MUKIE.J 



