9 
have been discovered in Holderness, may be enumerated those 
of the Beaver, Elk or Moose deer, and Reindeer — three species 
of mammals new to the Extinct Fauna of Yorkshire. Of the 
former animal, a very fine skull was exhumed during some 
extensive draining operations on the banks of a river near 
Wawne, in the neighbourhood of Beverley, in 1861, 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.* Previous remains of this 
singular rodent have been found in lacustrine formations in 
Scotland, Wales, Northumberland, Berkshire, Cambridgeshire, 
and Norfolk; and it is very evident the beaver existed in 
Britain down to historic times, as the names of many places 
are derived from some peculiarity of the site in connection 
with that animal, as Befer-burne or Bever-brook, Befer-ige 
and Beferic, Bever-island, and Befer-lac or Bever-lake or 
fence ; so evidently referring to the ordinary habits of the 
beaver as to prove its existence in the localities so named at 
that period. Leland, writing in the early part of the 16th 
century, mentions the town of Beverley, in Yorkshire, as 
not only having for its arms the animal “quod vocatur 
bever,” but afterwards, on the authority of a writer of the 
life of St. John of Beverley, gives the name of the town as 
derived from that animal, which abounded there : — “ Diere- 
wald locus nemorosus, id est sylva Deirorum, postea Berlac, 
quasi locus, vel lacus castorum, dictus a castoribus, quibus 
* For the different views of the skull in the accompanying plate I am indebted 
to Mr. Hanson, photographic artist, of Leeds. 
