ON THE BEAVERS OF SCOTLAND. 219 



and in the Hudson's Bay skulls, both these charac- 

 ters are known equally to indicate the adult or per- 

 fect state. Neither of the fossil skulls, however, 

 had belonged to an old animal ; for, in a Canadian 

 specimen in Dr Barclay's collection, not only are 

 several of the sutures nearly obliterated, but the 

 component pieces of the cuneiform bone* and the 

 cuneiform process of the occipital bone, are united ; 

 while in both the fossil specimens, the divisions re- 

 main evident ; circumstances which satisfactorily 

 show that this Canadian specimen had been older 

 than any of the others, although it is certainly not 

 of larger dimensions. 



The Scottish specimens, it may be remarked, 

 seem very much to agree with a fossil beaver's head 

 described and figured by M. Cuvier, in his " lle- 

 cherches sur les Ossemens fossiles de Quadrupedes," 

 vol, iv. sect, JDe rongeurs fossiles. This specimen 

 was found by M. Traulle, in a peat-moss in the 

 Valley of the Somme in Picardy. The same peat- 

 moss afforded, as with us, large horns of deer. 



