**  This  beaver,"  he  says,  "  is  a  creature  living  both  on  land  and  water,
footed  before  like  a  dog,  and  behind  like  a  goose,  with  an  ash-ooloured
skin  somewhat  blackish,  having  a  long  taile,  broad  and  gristly,  which
in  his  floting  he  useth  in  lieu  of  a  sterne.  Concerning  the  subtile
wilioesse  of  which  creatures,  Giraldus  hath  observed  many  things,
but  at  this  dale  none  of  them  are  to  be  seene."

Drayton,  in  his  PolyoJhion,  has  a  long  account  of  the
beaver,  and  its  mode  of  building,  but  as  he  is  indebted  to
some  earlier  writer  for  his  information,  and  not  to  personal
observation,  the  passage  is  hardly  worth  quoting.  Hr.
