CASTOR EUROPvEUS. 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 Europaus, 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 Ewop&us 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. 



O 



