212 VIEW OF THE EXTINCT FAUNA OF BRAZIL. 



dental system ; so that, as the main result of this enquiry, I 

 think I may lay down this proposition ; that, from whatever 

 point we consider this gigantic animal's habits, we are com- 

 pelled to conclude that they agreed in all respects most per- 

 fectly with those of the living type of the family, the sloth. 



In conclusion, I will only remark, that unless we attribute 

 to the Megalonyx the power of climbing, it will be difficult 

 to understand how it could possibly have preserved its exist- 

 ence in a country that swarmed so with beasts of prey, as 

 we shall, in the sequel, see was the case in Brazil in ancient 

 geological periods. Let it not be imagined that their enor- 

 mous bulk, or formidable claws, were sufficient for their pro- 

 tection. I have satisfied myself by numerous personal obser- 

 vations, how very easily the sloths of our day fall a prey to 

 predatory animals that are greatly inferior to them in size 

 and strength ; and I have frequently had the most astonishing 

 proofs of the fearlessness and powers of the predatory beasts 

 that now exist there. It would be out of place here to de- 

 scribe the scenes of battle and slaughter that have passed in 

 my own house, and under my own eyes, partly with the view 

 of throwing light upon this very subject. But this at least 

 I can affiim, from what I have myself seen, that if the Mega- 

 therium and Megalonyx, with their helpless powers of mo- 

 tion, had been confined to living on the ground, they w^ould 

 soon have been exterminated ; and we never should have 

 found their remains associated with those of the huge ante- 

 diluvian tiger, deposited in their resting-place during those 

 latter days that preceded the mighty catastrophe, which 

 closed the curtain between that former, and our present 

 world. 



There are three species of this genus (all different from the 

 N. American species, Megal. Jeffersonii) whose remains are 

 found in the diluvian soil of this district. The most common 

 of them, M. Cuvieri, is about the size of an ox ; but in con- 

 sequence of the massive build that distinguishes all this race, 

 most of its bones, when compared with those of the ox, ap- 

 pear to be two or three times larger in circumference and 

 bulk. 



The two other species are much less abundant. One of 

 them, Megal. Bucklandi, is the size of the tapir ; while the 

 other, Meg. minutus, can scarcely compete with the hog in 

 that respect. Whether the animals of this and the preceding 

 genus had any defensive armour, is a question that I have 

 not hitherto been able completely to solve. Associated with 

 one individual of Coelodon Maqtiinetise I found a mass of 

 granular concretions, which 1 cannot describe otherwise 



