A Trip to Mar del Plata 



203 



my midday meal, I told him that I would return to the 

 beach and that he would find me there later. I amused 

 myself by collecting insects, which I found abundant 

 along the beach under piles of half-dried seaweed, 

 among them one or two beautiful carabid beetles, over 

 which since my return one of my assistants has gloated, 



Fig. 18. Dcedicurus clavicaudatus Owen. 4 - e nat. size. 



because they represent a species hitherto unknown to 

 him, and said to be still very rare in collections. I 

 beguiled myself with making one or two water-color 

 sketches, and then, being rejoined by Dr. Roth, we 

 pushed up along the cliffs to points which we had not 

 examined during our rambles in the forenoon. We were 

 again repaid by finding a number of fossils, among them 

 part of an antler of an extinct deer, which I had a great 

 deal of trouble in cutting out of the matrix, which was 

 almost as hard as rock. Bits of the cuirass of Glyptodon 

 and of Dcedicurus were found, together with one of the 

 spike-like bony plates with which the end of the tail of 

 the latter enormous animal was armed. The Dcedi- 

 curus had a body as large as that of an ox. He belonged, 

 like the Glyptodon, to that great group of animals, now 



