PRKVIOUS TO THE LAST GEOLOGICAL REVOLUTION. 387 



the mammalia. Their time is now past : poor and weak 

 does this class appear in the actual order of creation, com- 

 pared with what it was in the former. Thus was it deter- 

 mined in the plan of Providence : the new theatre was des- 

 tined to the development of a more exalted creature, the 

 hour of whose appearance on the stage had sounded ; and 

 the inordinate proportions of animal life were reduced within 

 their proper limits. Finally, the extreme degree of heat that 

 had been so favourable to the increase of organic bulk, gave 

 way to a milder temperature, that permitted the free deve- 

 lopment of intelligence ; and the Human period succeeded 

 the Mammalian, 



In order to complete this sketch, I will, in conclusion, 

 offer a brief view of the contributions of other naturalists to 

 our knowledge on the subject. The first specimens of the 

 fossil remains of South America were brought home by Dom- 

 bey. They consisted of a few teeth and a portion of the 

 under jaw of a species of Mastodon^ which Cuvier recog- 

 nized as identical with that whose remains have been found 

 in Europe, M, jingustidens. This important subject did 

 not escape Baron Humboldt's attention : he brought back 

 with him some remains of the same genus, which Cuvier 

 discovered to belong to two new species, besides the one 

 already mentioned; these he named M. Andium and M. 

 Humboldtii, Baron Humboldt found the remains of the 

 first in Peru and Columbia, of the second in Ecuador and 

 Bolivia, of the last in Chili. In all these countries the 

 existence of such huge animal bones had given rise to the 

 story of giants ; which is also a very ancient tradition in 

 Brazil, and evidently arises from the same source. Long 

 ago Father Casale, in his ' Corographia Brasilica,' vol. i. 

 p. 78, speaks of gigantic bones being found near the Rio 

 das Contas, in the province of Bahia; and MM. Spix 

 and Martins inform us that these bones belong to the 

 above genus. So also M. A. de St. Hilaire, in his ' Travels,' 

 vol. ii. p. 314, describes a molar tooth of Mastodon which 

 was discovered in the sertao of the River San Francisco. 

 But the most important discovery, and which excited the 

 greatest attention among naturalists, was undoubtedly that 

 of the remains of the monstrous and gigantic animal, to 

 which Cuvier has given the name of Megatherium. A 

 nearly perfect skeleton of this animal was brought to light 

 in the year 1789, very near Buenos Ayres, and was sent by 

 the governor, the Marquis of Loretto, to Madrid, where it 

 has been set up and now remains. Besides this, a second is 

 said to have been sent to the same city in 1795 from Lima, 



