122 OTTER. Class I. 



flesh when it can get fish. Little stress ought 

 to be laid on the name, or comparison of it to a 

 wolf; this variety being of a size so superior to 

 the common, and its hair so much more shaggy, 

 a common observer might readily catch the idea 

 of the more terrible beast, and adapt his com- 

 parison to it. 

 Beaver. Beavers,* which are also amphibious ani- 

 mals, were formerly found in Great Britain; 

 but the breed has been extirpated many ages 

 as;o : the latest account we have of them, is in 

 Giraldus Cambremis,-\ who travelled through 

 Wales in 1188 : he gives a brief history of their 

 manners, and adds, that in his time they were 

 found only in the river Teivi. Two or three wa- 

 ters in that principality, still bear the name of 

 Llyn yr afaiigc,X or the beaver lake; which is 

 a further proof, that these animals were found 

 in different parts of it. I have seen two of their 

 supposed haunts ; one in the stream that runs 

 through Nant Francon ; the other in the river 

 Cojmy a few miles above Llannvst ; and both 

 places in all probability had formerly been 

 crossed by Beaver dams. But we imagine they 

 must have been very scarce even in earlier 



* Hist. quad. No. 311. ii. p. 114. Arct. Zoo!, i. 113. 

 t Girald. Camh. Itin. 178, 179. 

 X Rati syn. quad. 213. 



