34 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 



laws relating to hunting and fishing. It is there 

 laid down that the king is to have the worth of 

 Beavers, Martens, and Ermines, in whatsoever spot 

 they shall be kiUed, because from them the borders 

 of the king's garments are made. 



The price of a Beaver's skin, termed " croen 

 llostlydan," at that time was fixed at 120 pence, 

 while the skin of a Marten was only 24 pence, and 

 that of a Wolf, Fox, and Otter 8 pence. This shows 

 that even at that period the Beaver was a rare animal 

 in Wales. 



The superior warmth and comfort which the 

 Beaver's skin afforded, added to the reputation of 

 the medicinal properties of the castor, must have 

 operated as a very powerful incitement to hunt the 

 Beaver in those early times. We must, therefore, 

 refer the period of their abundance in this country 

 to an age much earlier than that of Howel Dha, the 

 period, perhaps, before the Britons were driven from 

 the more southern parts of Britain into the wilds of 

 Cambria by the Romans, Danes, and Saxons, and 

 when the mountainous wilds of Wales were almost 

 unreclaimed from a state of Nature by the hand of 

 cultivation. At such a time, it is very likely, the 

 Beavers were numerous in many of the mountain 

 streams and pools, but after the defeat of Vortigern, 

 who settled with a remnant of his scattered Britons 

 among these mountains, it is easy to conceive the 

 Beaver would be sought for by the hunters, perhaps 

 for the sake of food, and certainly for its fur ; so 

 that after the lapse of some centuries which passed 



