B. Smith — New Locality for Castoroides. 463 



Aet. XL. — A New Locality for Castoroides ; by Burnett 



Smith. 



The extinct, beaver-like Castoroides ohioensis Foster was 

 first made known to the scientific world in the year 1837.* 

 Since then more or less fragmentary remains of this gigantic 

 rodent have been obtained at irregular intervals and from scat- 

 tered localities. For nearly seventy years, however, the Clyde 

 findf has been the only one recorded from the State of New 

 York. The discovery of an incisor tooth at a new locality in 

 this state is, therefore, regarded as a matter of some interest, 

 especially so because the collector;); took the somewhat unusual 

 precaution of determining its horizon with considerable accu- 

 racy. 



The locality of the find is in lot 10, Town of Lenox, Madi- 

 son County, New York. The specimen was obtained from a 

 bluish clay which is exposed in that portion of Cowaselon 

 Creek§ which is commonly known as the "State Ditch." The 

 spot is about 225 paces from the southeast line of lot 10, the 

 distance being measured from this line in a northwesterly 

 direction along the creek. 



The exact horizon is about 8 feet below the present land 

 surface and probably about 4 feet below the top of the blue 

 clay, which for convenience will be designated the Cowaselon 

 Clay. The horizon of the specimen is unfortunately below the 

 water level of the creek. It has furnished pieces of wood, 

 seeds, and a few molluscan shells, but, so far, no additional 

 vertebrate remains have been found. 



At the locality of the find the banks of the creek are sloping 

 and densely overgrown. About 190 paces northwest, how- 

 ever, a slide has exposed a clean section, and the conditions at 

 this point have been determined as follows : 



5. About 2 feet of material probably representing a mixture 

 of sandy soil and artificial fill. 



4. About 6 inches or more of peaty matter locally known as 

 muck. 



3. From 2 to 6 inches of marl. 



2. From 1 to 1*5 feet of clay with peaty bands. 



1. Bluish Clay (Cowaselon Clay) ; about 2 feet exposed above 

 the level of the creek and passing downward under water to an 

 unknown depth. 



* This Journal, xxxi, p. 80. 



+ J. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., v., pp. 385-391 (Hall), and pp. 391-401 (Wyman). 



% Mr. A. A. Grant of Chittenango Station, to whose intelligent enterprise 

 we are indebted for a knowledge of the specimen. 



§ See U. S. G. S. Topographic Sheet of the Chittenango Quadrangle, about 

 3 miles northwest of Canastota. The spelling of the word Cowaselon is 

 taken from this and other maps. The local pronunciation and understand- 

 ing of the word appears to be Squaws Alone. 



