CASTOR EUROPXUS. 197 
In. Lines, 
Length of the skull 5 8 
Breadth of do. 4 2 
Length of the lower jaw . 4 3 
Height of do. at the coronoid process 2 6 
These remains of the Beaver were met with in nearly 
the same position and locality as those in which the bones 
of the Otter, described at pp. 119—122, were found. 
My. Lyell cites, from the Bulletin de la Société Géolo- 
gique de France, tom. i. p. 26, M. Morren’s discovery, in 
the peat of Flanders, of the bones of Otters and Beavers ; 
and he observes, ‘‘ but no remains have been met with 
belonging to those extinct quadrupeds, of which the living 
congeners inhabit warmer latitudes, such as the Elephant, 
Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, Hyena, and Tiger, though 
these are so common in superficial deposits of silt, mud, 
sand, or stalactite, in various districts throughout Great 
Britain. Their absence seems to imply that they have 
ceased to live before the atmosphere of this part of the 
world acquired that cold and humid character which 
favours the growth of peat.”* The Ox, the Horse, the 
Roebuck, the Red Deer, the Wild Boar, the Brown Bear, 
the Wolf, and the Beaver, of which animals the bones have 
been found under similar circumstances in fens and peat- 
bogs, have doubtless all existed as wild animals in this 
country since the formation of the peat began, and have 
been either gradually domesticated or extirpated by man. 
With respect to the historical records and notices of the 
Beaver as an indigenous quadruped of Great Britain, Mr. 
Neill, in an interesting Memoir on the Beavers of Scotland,+ 
states, that no mention of such an animal occurs in any of 
the public records now extant. In an act, dated June 
* Principles of Geology, 1837, vol. ili. p. 187. 
+ Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, vol. i. p. 177. 
