Mr Neill on the Beavers of' Scotland, 183 
had an opportunity of comparing it with the same bone in an- 
other beaver ; for Edinburgh does not at present afford a com- 
plete skeleton of this animal. But I compared it with the cor- 
responding bone in the otter, the badger, and the fox, as the wild 
quadrupeds most likely to have occurred in Perthshire ; and am 
satisfied that it had not belonged to any of these. The pelvis of the 
beaver is more elongated; this os innominatum is almost twice 
the length of the same bone in a full grown otter; and the fora- 
men thyrpideum is very large, even in proportion to the bone 
itself. All the bones are dyed of a deep chocolate colour. 
From the state of the sutures of the cranium, and from the 
size of the bones of the nose, which are complete, this animal 
appears to have been of full growth, but not aged. 
On applying to Dr Farquharson, I had the satisfaction to learn, 
that these were really the remains of a Caledonian beaver, having 
been dug up in the parish of Kinloch in Perthshire, near the 
foot of the Grampian Mountains. The Loch of Marlee, on the 
property of Mr Farquharson of Invercauld, is the last or lowest 
of a series of small lakes, extending almost from Dunkeld to 
Blairgowrie, nearly in the direction of the high road between these 
places. This loch had been partly drained, for the sake of the 
rich stores of marl it contained, which in some places was found 
in a layer almost twenty feet in thickness. In one of the marl- 
pits on the margin of this loch, under a covering of peat- 
moss between five and six feet thick, the beavePs skeleton was 
discovered. The bones already mentioned, being the firmest and 
most perfect, were saved by the workmen ; and being accidental- 
" ly seen by Dr Farquharson, were carried by him to Edinburgh, 
and presented, as already mentioned, to the Antiquarian Society. 
In a neighbouring marl-pit, a pair of deePs horns, of large 
size and with fine antlers, were found nearly at the same time ; 
and along with these, two leg-bones, so deeply grooved as to ap- 
pear like double bones.” These last, it has been suggested to me 
by Dr Barclay, were probably the metatarsal bones of the great 
species of deer, which appears to have been contemporary with the 
beaver, and to have become extinct much about the same period 
with that animal. In the Statistical Account of the parish of 
Kinloch, published in 1796, the occurrence of the deePs horns 
is mentioned, but no notice is taken of any remains of the 
beaver having been found. 
