84 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



" 3d. Muck or peaty soil, . . . inclosing trunks of trees of 

 large size, about 4 feet thick." 



The cranium of Castoroides rested on a layer of fine sand 

 2 or 3 feet thick, beneath which occurred drift containing boulders 

 and fragments of sand and limestones from a locality a few miles 

 farther north. 



Among the fragments of fossil wood, in the layer above that on 

 which the cranium rested, were found pieces showing plainly the 

 marks of beaver teeth but whether these were of the recent species 

 or of Castoroides was not determined. The Rev. Benjamin 

 Hale of Geneva, N. Y., from whom the specimen was received, 

 stated in a letter dated November 1845, that specimens of charred 

 wood and charcoal were also discovered in the layer above the 

 cranium. An anatomical description of the specimen by Jeffries 

 Wyman follows Hall's account in the same journal. 



In Ohio, as before mentioned, and in Indiana, Louisiana and 

 Tennessee, Castoroides bones were found mingled with those 

 of mastodons, elephants and other animals. Mastodons or elephants 

 have not been recorded from the precise localities of New York 

 specimens of the giant beaver but they have been found in deposits 

 of like character and at practically the same level. Remains of the 

 recent beaver have also been found with those of the extinct one. 58 



An account of the discovery of a lower left incisor tooth of 

 Castoroides in the town of Lenox, Madison county, has been 

 given by Burnett Smith. 5! * In this instance the tooth was embedded 

 in a layer of bluish clay overlain by the following materials : 



1. The surface materials consisting of about 2 feet of sandy 

 soil and artificial fill. 



2. About 6 inches of muck. 



3. Marl, 2 to 6 inches. 



4. One to 1 Y-2. feet of clay with peaty bands. 



Castoroides is distinctly an American species with the gen- 

 eral proportions of the recent beaver and bulk of the black bear. 

 Its grinding teeth, however, resemble those of the South American 

 Capybara (Hydrochoerus) and more remotely, those of 

 Chinchilla. 



Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist, 1848, 2:138. 

 Amer. Jour. Sci. 1914, 38:463-66. 



