96 
BEAVER. 
% 
OW “EoBY Rx Crass I, 
feck their food among frefh waters, we fhould 
imagine we had here recovered this loft animal, 
which he mentions immediately after the otter, and 
defcribes as being broader. Though this muft re- 
main a doubt, we may with greater confidence fup- 
pofe the fea otter to be the Loup marin of Belon*, 
which from a hearfay account, he fays, is found 
on the Exgl/b coafts. He compares its form to 
that of a wolf, and fays, it feeds rather on fifh than 
fheep. That circumitance alone makes it probable, 
Sibbaid’s animal was intended, it being well known, 
the otter declines flefh when it can get fifh. Little 
{trefs ought to be laid on the name, or comparifon 
of it to a wolf; this variety being of a fize fo fu- 
perior to the common, and its hair fo much more 
fhagey, a common obferver might readily catch the 
idea of the more terrible beaft, and adapt his com- 
parifon to it. 
Beavers, which are alfo amphibious animals, were 
formerly found in Great Britain ; but the breed has 
been extirpated many ages ago: the lateft accounts 
we have of them, is in Giraldus Cambrenfis+, who 
travelled through Wajes in 1188: he gives a brief 
hiftory of their manners; and adds, that in his time 
guippe que nou plerumque aggrediens, virgulta proxima fuis 
dentibus, ut ferro precidat. Lutris etiam hominem mordet, 
nec defiftit (ut ferunt ) nifi fra@i offs crepitum fenferit, Latact 
pilus durus, Jpecie inter pilum vituli marini et cervi. 
* Belon de la Nature des Poifous, p. 28. pl. 29. 
+ Girald. Camb. Itin. 178, 179- 
they 
