180 
Mr Nelli on the Beavers (^Scotland. 
Ness, as that there were wild horses there ; and it admits of no 
doubt whatever, that otters were then to be found on the banks 
of the lake, for they are so to this day. 
In the Statistical Account of Scotland, it may be noticed, no 
mention is made of any trace of the remains of these animals 
having 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 powerful dredging-ma- 
chine, the bed of Loch Dochfour, no bones of the beaver^ nor 
indeed of any other quadruped, have occurred. With the ex- 
ception of marine shells in the alluvial land next to the sea, the 
only organic remains hitherto found, have belonged to the ve- 
getable. kingdom, and have consisted chiefly of filbert nuts and 
trunks of oak trees. I state this on the authority of one of the 
resident engineers, who adds, that ever since the commencement 
of this national undertaking, all the sub-contractors and over- 
seers have been enjoined to preserve any organic remains, espe- 
cially skeletons, which should occur in the progress of the work. 
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 (martens), fowmartes (pole- 
cats), otters and tods (foxes), 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, (found in the inguinal glands of the 
animal), which in those days still retained some share of its an- 
cient repute as ai medicine. As it is pretty plain from their wri- 
tings, that neither the historiographer nor his translator had the 
slightest claim to the character of being naturalists, . and as both 
give abundant proofs of their nationality, in boasting beyond 
measure of the products of their country, it may be considered 
as not improbable that the beaver was extinct in Scotland be- 
fore their time, although the tradition regarding its existence in 
former days was then so strong and general, as to lead them to 
enumerate it without hesitation among the wild animals of the 
country ; — in the same wn-y as the capercailzie, or. cock of the 
