40 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 



After stating that tlie Teivi was the only river in 

 Wales, or even in England, that had Beavers, 

 Giraldus remarks : " In Scotland they are said to be 

 found in one river, but are very scarce." Hector 

 Boece (or Boethius), that shrewd old father of 

 Scottish historians, writing in 1526, enumerates the 

 Fihri* or Beavers, with perfect confidence, amongst 

 the feroe natures of Loch Ness, whose fur was in 

 request for exportation towards the end of the 

 fifteenth century, and he even speaks of "an incom- 

 parable 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 his 

 vernacular translation of Boethius' "Crohiklis of 

 Scotland," which he undertook at royal request in 

 1536, while omitting stags, roe-deer, and even 

 otters, in his anxiety for accuracy, mentions " Bevers " 

 without the slightest hesitation ; and, though ex- 

 ception may be taken to the first clause of the 

 sentence, yet the passage is worth quoting : "Mony 

 vrjrld Hors and amang yame are mony Martrikis 

 [pine martens], Bevers, Quhitredis [weasels], femd 

 Toddis [foxes], the furrings and skynnis of thayme are 

 coft [bought] with great price amang uncouth [foreign] 

 merchandis." 



More than a century later, Sir Robert Sibbald was 

 unable to say that the Beaver stiU existed in Scotland* 

 In his "Scotia lUustrata/' published in 1684, he 



* Fihri, from Fitm; denoting an animal that is fond of the fihrum 

 or edge, bf the water. 



