FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 129 



rather, nearly in the natural position. That it belongs to the 

 genus of the sarigue, now exclusively appropriated to America, 

 the Baron has proved, by a long and scientific comparison of 

 it with the different genera of this numerous and extraordinary 

 family in both America and Australasia. But whether it is an 

 extinct or a living species he has not, from our imperfect know- 

 ledge concerning this family in general, been able completely 

 to determine. He is, however, decidedly of opinion, that it 

 belongs to no species of that family of which we know suffi- 

 cient to furnish data for a satisfactory comparison. 



Fossil Rodentia. 



It does not appear that this order bore a less relative propor- 

 tion to the other animals of former worlds, than it does to the 

 population of the present. The majority, however, of the spe- 

 cies were small, as are those of the present day, and it is only 

 under peculiar circumstances that their remains have been 

 remarked and collected. In fact, they have been generally 

 found incrusted in stones, or in such concretions as have pre- 

 served them from decay. The genus of the castor alone seems 

 to have, from its magnitude, escaped destruction under other 

 circumstances, and some remains of it have been discovered in 

 the loose strata. 



We shall simply notice, without dwelling on them, that two 

 species of the rabbit have been found in the osseous breccia 

 of Gibraltar, Cette, and Pisa ; remains of the lagomys in that 

 of Corsica and Sardinia ; and of the campagnol in that of 

 Sardinia, Corsica, and Cette : besides two species of the loir, 

 or dormouse, in the plaster-quarries of Paris. Without enter- 

 ing into any specific account of these, we shall at once proceed 

 to the fossil rodentia of other localities. The small bones of 

 the caverns have been generally too much neglected. This, 

 however, has not been the case with the cave of Kirkdale. Dr. 

 Buckland, in his account of that, particularizes the bones of 

 rabbits, of campagnols, and of mice found in this cavern, 



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