138 Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 
CONCERNING A SKELETON OF THE GREAT FOSSIL 
BEAVER, €ASTOROIDES OHIOENSTS. 
By JosepH Moore, oF EARLHAM COLLEGE, RICHMOND, IND. 
(Read by title, March 4, 1890.) 
I. HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 
In the fall of 1889, while some farmers in the eastern part of 
Randolph County, Indiana, were opening a very large ditch to 
drain a swampy tract, locally known as ‘‘the dismal,’’ the con- 
tractor came upon a skeleton which, on account of its ‘‘ standing 
in the natural position,” and on account of its ‘‘ wonderful tusks,” 
awakened a desire to save all the parts that might be found. 
The find proved on examination to be the bones and teeth of 
Castoroides ohioensts, Foster, which in the main were in a fair state 
of preservation. The finder, however, did not secure all the bones, 
and the earth which was thrown out was immediately scraped back 
and spread over the ground, from which a few additional fragments 
were afterward gathered. 
The skeleton was found on the farm of Jno. M. Turner, formerly 
treasurer of the county. It was about eight feet below the surface, 
in a bluish gray silt, underlying four or five feet of alluvium very 
rich in vegetable mold. 
Special interest must attach to this discovery, on account of the 
sparseness of the remains heretofore found. The approach to 
completeness of this skeleton may enable paleontologists to deter- 
mine its zoological relations more confidently in some respects than 
they have been able heretofore to do. 
As my readers are aware, Castoroides ohioensis has been known 
since 1838, when there fell into the hands of Col. J. W. Foster, an 
assistant of the Ohio Geological Survey, part of the lower jaw 
with the teeth, an upper incisor, and some other fragments which, 
from their resernblance to the corresponding parts of the beaver, 
led him to adopt the generic name Custoroides —the specific name 
being given owing to its then being known only from the State of 
Ohio. 

