354 



A. SMITH WOOD WARD [nov. 1899 



by Mr. Spencer Moore in view of the British Association meeting. 

 He reports that it " consists in large part apparently of grasses, as the 

 haulms, leaf -sheaths, fragments of leaves, etc., of these plants are 

 frequent in it. A spikelet, almost entire, of what seems to be a 

 species of Poa, and the flowering glume of another grass, probably 

 Avenaceous, have also been found. Besides these there is at least one 

 dicotyledonous plant, almost certainly a herb, with a slender greatly 

 sclerotised stem ; though, as no attached leaves have so far been 

 observed, its affinity is altogether doubtful." Mr. Moore also observes 

 that there are numerous siliceous particles in the excrement, and 

 several pieces of the underground parts of the plants, as if they had 

 been pulled out of the ground. At the same time, he finds a few 

 pieces which have been sharply cut in a way which the blunt teeth 

 of Glossotherium (Neomylodon) could scarcely act. Since Owen's well- 

 known and beautiful memoirs on Megatherium and Mylodon, it has 

 always been supposed that the gigantic extinct ground-sloths fed on 

 twigs and the leaves of trees. If his conclusions are well-founded, as 

 seems almost beyond dispute, Glossotherium must either have been an 

 exception to the rule owing to local circumstances, or it must have 

 been doomed to an artificial mode of life by man who fed it. The 

 authors of the memoir published by the La Plata Museum are all iu 

 favour of the latter view; and Dr. Lehmann-Nitsche even suggests 

 that the famous cracked and repaired skull of Mylodon in the Eoyal 

 College of Surgeons, immortalised by Owen, was not accidentally 

 damaged by a falling tree, but bears the mark of an encounter with 

 man in which the animal escaped. He mentions five similarly fractured 

 skulls in the La Plata Museum. 



Personally, we find it as difficult to believe that Glossotherium was 

 a domesticated animal among the ancient Patagonians, as that it still 

 lives in the wilds of the southern land where its remains are found. 

 Dr. Hauthal's splendid discoveries only have the effect of making us 

 eager for more. Mr. Graham Kerr's interesting speech at the British 

 Association, expressing the opinion of one who has considerable ex- 

 perience of the South American Indian tribes, leaves little hope that 

 huntsmen will ever find the beast. The Indians, in his opinion, are 

 too keen field -naturalists to have escaped noticing the animal if it 

 lives in their country. They know every track and trail. The 

 impalpable character of the dust in the cave alone suggests intense 

 dryness, and strongly confirms Dr. Moreno's idea that all the remains 

 in Cueva Eberhardt are of great antiquity, notwithstanding their fresh 

 aspect. More cave exploration in southern Patagonia is therefore 

 urgently to be desired. 



British Museum 



(Natural History Department), 

 London, S.W. 



