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 Trogontherium 

 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 7 1 o) 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."f 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" (and 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 Pedivarllecli , 

 and Greek Petonar, chief city of the Parisoi, as it still is of the East 

 Hiding. From Pedwarllech we have Bevorlac, Bevevley." 



