THE BEAVER. 



Coat Beaver; Parchment Beaver is fo called, becaufe the under fide of it 

 refembles that fubftance ; and Stage Beaver, which is the worlt, is that 

 which the Indians kill out of feafon, when they are out on their ftages and 

 journeys (a). 



The well-known, valuable drug, cafioreum, or caftor, is the inguinal 

 glands of thefe animals ; that which comes from Rufiia is five times more 

 valuable than what is brought from America. 



The flelh of the Beaver is efteemed good eating : it is ufually preferved 

 by drying it in the fmoke, after the bones have been taken out. 



The Beaver inhabits Europe from Lapland to Languedoc(B) ; it is found 

 in great plenty in the North ; is met with in abundance in the Ruffian and 

 Aliatic dominions ; but is found in greateft plenty in North America. 



" Beavers were formerly found in Great Britain ; but the breed has been 

 long fince extirpated. The lateft accounts we have of them is in Giraldus 

 Cambrenfis(c), who travelled through "Wales in 1188: he gives a brief 

 hiftory of their manners, and adds, that in his time they were found only in 

 the river Teiri ; two or three lakes in that principality Hill bear the name of 

 Llyn yr Afange(p), or the Beaver Lake ; which is a farther proof, that thefe 

 animals were found in different parts of it. But we imagine they mull have 

 been very fcarce even in earlier times ; for by the laws of Hoel dda, the price 

 of a Beaver's Ikin (Croen Lloftlydan, or the broad- tailed animal) was fixed 

 at one hundred and twenty pence, a great fum in thofe days(E)." 



(a) Pennant. (b) Buffon. 



(c) Girald Camb. Itin. 178, 179. (d) Raii Syn. Quad. 213, 



(e) Pennant's Britifh Zoology, 



