Prior Existence of the Castor Fiber in Scotland. 85 



Boethius reporting, after the lapse of almost another century, 

 that the wild region of Loch Ness contained then, not only a 

 great abundance of wild animals such as stags, horses, and 

 roes, but "ad hsec Marterillse, Fovinse ut vulgo vocantur, 

 Vulpes, Mustellae, Fibri, Lutreeque in incomparabili numero, 

 quorum tergora exterse gentes ad luxum immenso precio 

 coemunt,"* it is with the inclination, led on by the Assize of 

 David, and by the narrative of Giraldus, with both resting 

 securely on the discoveries in our mosses, still to extend to 

 him a more entire confidence than has been customarily 

 conceded by others. Bellenden, in translating this passage, 

 while he omits the stags, roe-deer, and otters, preserves the 

 *' mony martrikis, bevers, quhitredis, and toddis," with the 

 intimation that " the furringis and skinnis of thaim are coft 

 with gret price amang uncouth marchandis."t The very 

 license which Bellenden appears to have allowed himself in 

 his translation, seems to me here to lend weight to the 

 authority of the original statement. He may have omitted 

 the kinds of deer, and the otter, as animals too notoriously 

 abundant everywhere to require remark ; but, whatever was 

 his motive, that he should have excluded the one, and retained 

 the other, showed the probability of some grounds for a 

 selection ; and seems to give greater authenticity to that 

 which he left thus, in a more marked manner, with the support 

 of a conjunct testimony. As to the " incomparable number," 

 this must be held to apply to the animals in the aggregate, 

 and not to the beaver in particular ; and- the rarity of this 

 was certainly not the less likely to enhance its price, that it 

 had annulled its importance as a source of revenue. 



Upon the whole, it seems thus fairly admissible, that the 

 existence of the beaver in Scotland may be authentically 

 traced as far down as to the beginning of the sixteenth century ; 

 though doubtless for long in extremely limited numbers, and, 

 naturally, only in deeply secluded localities. Sibbald, writing 

 towards the close of the century which follows,| adduces 

 merely the statement of Boece, and, without rejecting it, pro- 

 fesses his ignorance as to whether the animal was still indigenous. 

 It may be noted incidentally here, that the Gaelic Dictionary 

 of the Highland Society of Scotland contains the dobhran- 

 leasleathan as the designation of the beaver ; while we re- 

 remark, at the same time, the close analogy of this term to 

 the llosdlydan (the broad-tailed animal) of the code of Hywel 

 Dda. Reverting to Wales, the celebrated Camden speaks 



* Hector Boethius, Scotor. Hist. ; Regni descrip. (1527), F. ix. 

 t Boece, translated by Bellenden (1536), cap. viii., F. xxxiii. 

 X Scotia Illustrata (1681), part ii., lib. iii., p. 10. 



