184 



CASTORID^. 



RODENTIA. 



CASTORIDJK. 



Fig. 71. 



Lower jaw, \ nat. size. Bacton. 



TROGONTHERIUM CUVIERL 



Beaver. 



Cuvier's Gigantic 



Trogontherium Cuvieri, 

 Castor trogontherium, 



FISCHER, Memoires de la Societe des Naturalistes de 



Moscou, torn. ii. p. 250. 

 CUVIER, Ossemens Fossiles, torn. v. pt. 1. p. 59. 



THE discovery of the remains of a Rodent animal indi- 

 cating an extinct sub-generic type in that order, and a 

 species nearly allied to, but much exceeding in size the 

 Beaver, which is now the largest of the indigenous Rodents 

 of Europe, is due to M. Gothelf de Fischer, who has thus 

 interpreted the characters of a fossil cranium from the sandy 

 borders of the Sea of Azof. 



Cuvier, to whom M. Fischer had transmitted a figure of 

 this fossil, perceived its close resemblance to that of the 

 Beaver, but observed, that it was about one-fifth larger 



