POSITION IN ANIMAL KINGDOM. 37 



But the most common situation in which the remains 

 of the beaver are found in this island, as on the Con- 

 tinent, is the turbary peat- bog, or moss-pit. * * '*' 

 Remains of the Castor Europseus have been found at 

 the depth of eight feet and a half beneath peat, rest- 

 ing upon a stratum of clay, with much decayed and 

 seemingly charred wood, associated with remains of 

 megaceros, or great Irish deer, at Higley, Norfolk,"^ 



Beaver-gnawed wood was found in the same cavity 

 with, and five feet above the skeleton of the mastodon 

 discovered in 1867, at Cohoes, near Albany, New York. 

 This wood, which was first noticed by Dr. S. B. Wool- 

 worth, is now in the State Cabinet of Natural History. 

 It appeal's from the description of Prof James Hall, 

 who personally superintended the removal of the prin- 

 cipal bones, that this mastodon was found in a pothole 

 excavated in the shale rock (Hudson River group), 

 and more than forty feet below the surface. The 

 remains were imbedded in clay and river ooze, resting 

 upon gravel, and covered with an accumulation of 

 peat. In the presence of this beaver-gnawed wood 

 so near the mastodon, some evidence is furnished that 

 the beaver and the mastodon were contemporaneous.^ 



The fossil remains of the Trogontlierium were first 

 discovered by Fischer on the borders of the Sea of Azof, 

 and afterward in various parts of England. Cuvier 

 placed him in the genus Castor, and gave the name 



^ British Fossil Mammals and Birds. Lond. ed., 1846, p. 190. 



^ Prof. Hall, iu describing %he position and relations in which 

 this skeleton was found, remarks : " In the peaty deposits where 

 these bones have occurred, the remains of recent or existing vege- 

 tation are present ; and the relations of these deposits show very 

 clearly that the surface of the country has undergone no important 



