46 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 
Fossil remains of an extinct Beaver, closely allied 
to, but much larger than, the existing species, have 
been found in the Norwich crag at Cromer. Prof. 
Owen has described it under the name Trogonthertum 
Cuvieri.* 
The town of Beverley, in Yorkshire, is said to 
have derived its name from the number of Beavers 
found in the vicinity, when in the eighth century 
(about 710) St. John of Beverley built his hermitage 
there, the foundation of the town. The stream on 
which the town was built was then called in Anglo- 
Saxon ‘ Beofor-leag,” or “the Beavers Lea;” but 
this has become softened down into its present pro- 
nunciation and spelling. “ The town,” says Leland, 
“hath yn theyr common seal the figure of a 
bever.”t Other places in England also seem to 
indicate by their names the ancient haunts of this 
animal, as Beverege (Worcestershire), and Bevere 
Island, formed by the Beverburn or “ Barbon” (two 
miles north of Worcester), Bevercotes (Nottingham- 
shire), Beverstone (Gloucestershire), and Beversbrook 
(Wiltshire). 
The lately-attempted re-introduction of the Beaver 
into Scotland by the Marquis of Bute deserves some 
notice here. 
In a solitary pine wood near Rothesay, in the Isle 
* “ British Fossil Mammals,” p. 184. 
t+ Other authorities, however, suggest a different derivation—e.g., 
in Phillips’ “ Yorkshire” (2nd ed. p. 105) we read: “ At Beverley was 
the shrine of St. John, preceded by an earlier settlement marked by 
four stones, from which we infer that it was the British Pedwarllech, 
and Greek Petonar, chief city of the Parisoi, as it still is of the East 
Riding. From Pedwarllech we have Bevorlac, Beverley.” 
