CASTOR EUROP.BUS, 193 
bones have been found, but I never saw any of these my- 
self, though I have of all the others. But I am assured 
that all these things are generally found at the bottom of 
the peat, or very near it. And, indeed, it is always very 
proper to be well and faithfully informed of the exact 
depth and place where anything of these kinds is found ; 
whether it is in the earth above the peat, or in the clob, or 
in the true peat, or at the bottom of it, which will greatly 
assist us in forming a just judgment of the real antiquity of 
the things that are found, or at least of the time they have 
lain there.” 
This desirable kind of information I have been enabled 
to obtain, through Mr. Purdoe of Islington, a zealous col- 
lector of fossil remains, in relation to remains of Jaws and 
teeth of the Castor Europeus, which were found twenty 
feet below the present surface in the Newbury peat valley. 
The section of the valley at this part disclosed, first, two 
feet of alluvium, then eight feet of a shell-marl, next ten 
feet of peat, then a second deposit of shell-marl, containing 
fresh-water shells of existing species; and in this stratum 
the Beaver’s bones were found, associated with remains of 
the Wild Boar, Roebuck, Goat, Deer, and Wolf. The 
second bed of marl, rested on drift gravel. 
Remains of the Castor Europeus have been found at the 
depth of eight feet and a half beneath peat, resting upon a 
stratum of clay, with much decayed and seemingly charred 
wood, associated with remains of the Megaceros, or great 
Irish Deer, at Hilgay, Norfolk. I owe this information, 
and the opportunity of examining the specimens, to Mr. 
Wickham Flower, F.G.S., in whose collection they are 
now contained. 
Mr. Patrick Neill* cites an entry in the minutes of the 
* Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, vol. i. p. 183. 
