Sheppard : Beavers in East Yorkshire. 109 



ago I discovered this entry under the date 1790: — ' Pd. for 

 a bever head, 2d.' It is o^i course possible that this may not be 

 the record of a true beaver, and may be intended for some other 

 animal. Any information on the subject will, I am sure, be 

 welcome to all students of Yorkshire history. 



^ > ^ 



NOTE ON ABOVE PAPER. 



BEAVERS IN EAST YORKSHIRE. 



THOMAS SHEPPARD, F.G.S. 



' Bever-heads ' is an item occasionally found in old parish 

 accounts, and refers to heads of the otter, not the beaver. 

 A single skull of a beaver, however, has been found near 

 Beverle}', and was described and figured by Ed. Tindall in 

 a paper, ' Remarks on the Extinct Fauna of the East Riding 

 of Yorkshire.' (Report of Proceedings of the Geological and 

 Polytechnic Society of the West Riding of Yorkshire, 1869, 

 pp. 7-14). As this paper seems to have been almost overlooked 

 by later writers, I give the paragraph referring- to the beaver in 

 full : — ' Of the former animal [beaver] a very fine skull was 

 exhumed during some extensive drainage operations on the 

 banks of a river near Wawne, in the neighbourhood of Beverley, 

 in i86r, by Dr. Brereton, and who has kindly allowed the 

 specimen to be exhibited at this meeting. The skull, it will be 

 observed, has every indication of having belonged to a mature 

 individual, measuring six inches in length, and four inches in 

 width across the posterior part of the zygoma. The nasal bones, 

 one incisor, and six of the molar teeth are wanting ; in every 

 other respect the skull is in a fine state of preservation, and 

 deeply coloured by the peat.' Under and side views of it 

 accompany Mr. Tindall's notes. It would be interesting to 

 know where this skull now is. 



The greater part of a skeleton of a beaver was found in the 

 peat-bed at Withernsea a few years ago by Mr. Pygas, jun., of 

 Withernsea. This peat-bed is occasionally exposed ^on the beach 

 at low tide, near the remains of the pier. The late Dr. H. B. 

 Hewetson borrowed the bones for his ' Museum ' at Easington, 

 but, unfortunately, their present whereabouts is unknown. 



Some beaver bones were obtained by Mr. Thomas Boynton, 

 F.S.A., during his excavations of the ancient lake dwelling at 

 Ulrojne, in Holderness, proving that it existed in East Yorkshire 



1903 April I. 



