ON THE BEAVERS OF SCOTLAND. 209 



versos Cambriae seu etiam Lloegriae fluvios, solus hie 

 castores habet ;" and adds, " In Albania quippe, ut 

 fertur, fluvio similiter unico habentur, sed rari *" 

 We may perhaps infer from this cautious mode of 

 expression, that the author intended to contrast the 

 nature of his evidence, and to intimate, that the fact 

 previously mentioned depended on surer grounds, or 

 on his own observation. But the very cautiousness 

 of the language in which the report relative to Al- 

 bania is repeated, ought, perhaps, to increase our re- 

 liance on its authenticity. It would appear, there- 

 fore, that in the 12th century, the beaver probably 

 still existed in Scotland, but was then a scarce ani- 

 mal. 



The first of the native topographers and histori- 

 ans of Scotland whose works assumed a printed form, 

 and have come down to us, is Hector Boece, who 

 wrote his Description and History towards the end 

 of the 15th century. After describing the dimen- 

 sions of Loch Ness, he says, " Ad lacus latera, 

 propter ingenta n em or a ferarum ingens copia est, 

 cervorum, equorum indomitorum, capreolorum : ad 

 haec, marterellss, fovinaa ut vulgo vocantur, vulpes, 

 mustelse, fibri lutrseque, incomparabile numero, quo- 

 rum tergora exterge gentes ad luxum immenso pretio 

 coemunt f ." Here the fibri are enumerated with 

 such perfect confidence among the other quadrupeds 



whose furs were in request for exportation, that we 

 vol. in. o 



* Itin. Camb. lib. ii. cap. 3. t Boethius, Scot. Hist. 



