36 



elk in the Hunterian musetim, it was found to be nearly as 

 large as the jaw in that splendid skeleton. He was also much 

 interested in the shaft of a massive horn, of which the upper 

 portion and one of the two brow antlers were wanting. He 

 had great difficulty in determining what species it belonged to, 

 but considered that it must have been a species of reindeer, the 

 great length of shaft before branching occurred forbidding it to 

 have been the horn of a red deer. Professor Owen thought 

 this large horn, and the larger jaw above-mentioned, may have 

 belonged to the same animal. 



The beaver jaw he at once pronounced to be " the left ramus 

 of the lower jaw of the European beaver," {Castor Europeus,) 

 and added, "he had not cut this (the posterior) tooth long." 

 This jaw was found in the Peat, and is well preserred. It 

 presents a beautiful example of the dentition of a rodent : the 

 molar teeth, with their transversal plications, maintaining a 

 fine triturating surface ; the incisor, with its (;hisel-shaped 

 edge preserved by enamel being deposited only on its anterior 

 surface, and the whole constantly replaced by growths at its 

 base, and pushed forward as fast as the cutting portion is worn 

 away by contact with hard bodies and by the oj)posing incisor. 



These Peat beds also contained, of land shells, two or three 

 species of Helix, and of fresh- water shells, a Cyclas and Lymnoeus 

 Pereger. 



The bed of Peat in which these remains were found was 4 to 

 6 feet in depth ; but 50 yards lower down the valley it had 

 thinned out to an inconsiderable bed, composed of Peat and 

 Clay, 1 foot in depth only, and in it were to be seen several 

 stumps of trees, 1 foot in diameter, rooted to the spots on which 

 they had grown, but with their trunks broken off and lying 

 along on a level with their stumps, the wood stiU tolerably 

 sound, and in its texture, and reddish tint of colour, resembling 

 alder. 



It is not difficult to picture out in thought the scene which 

 this valley must have presented at the time when these Peaty 

 deposits were accruing : — The streams, unimpeded by art, in 

 many places flowing in a rapid current, and falling in a sounding 



