ON THE BEAVERS OF SCOTLAND. 211 



has ever occurred in the neighbourhood of Loch 

 Ness. What is more remarkable, in the extensive 

 excavations along the line of the Caledonian Canal, 

 from Inverness to Corpach, and in the course of 

 deepening, by means of a dredging-machine, the 

 bed of Loch Dochfour, no bones of the beaver have 

 occurred. 



The accuracy both of Boece and of Bellenden 

 seems to be strongly impugned by this important 

 fact, that no mention of beavers occurs in any of 

 the public records of Scotland now extant. In an 

 act dated June 1424, c. 22. " Of the custome of 

 furringis," mertricks, fowmartes (pole-cats), otters, 

 and tods, are specified ; but not a word is said of 

 beavers, although these, had they existed, must 

 have been the most valuable of all, not only for 

 their furs, but for the substance called castor, which 

 in those days still retained its repute as a medicine. 

 As it is pretty plain from their writings, that nei- 

 ther the historiographer nor his translator had the 

 slightest claim to the character of being naturalists, 

 and as both give abundant proofs of their nationali- 

 ty, in boasting beyond measure of the products of 

 their country, it may be considered as not improba- 

 ble that the beaver had been exterminated in Scot- 

 land before their time, although the tradition re- 

 garding its existence in former days was so strong 

 and general, as to lead them to enumerate it with- 

 out hesitation among the wild animals of the coun- 

 try. 



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