Sir Arthur Smith Woodward 269 



thick, and that while the outer part had coarse hair on it 

 the inner side was full of little bones. 



Going back into the house, Moreno made inquiries, and 

 was told that this piece of skin had been found in a cave 

 near the shore. Moreno again examined the skin, and 

 came to the conclusion that it was part of the hide of the 

 mylodon, a creature commonly called the giant sloth. 

 Bones of this creature had already been found, but it was 

 believed to be extinct. Yet this piece of hide looked 

 amazingly fresh. The hair was still on it, and there was 

 even a blood clot. It was not in any respect fossilized. 



The next thing to do was to examine the cave ; there 

 Moreno found other fragments of skin and bones of the 

 same animal. The cave he found to be singularly dry, 

 while everything was covered with a thick dust containing 

 a quantity of saltpetre. This explained the wonderful 

 state of preservation of the hide. The owner of the 

 rancho parted with the relic, and Moreno took it with him 

 to London, where he called in his friend, the distinguished 

 geologist Doctor (now Sir) Arthur Smith Woodward, who 

 made a microscopic section of a morsel of the hide and 

 confirmed Moreno's opinion that it was indeed the hide 

 of the giant sloth. 



We think of a sloth as a rather small, stupid, hairy 

 animal that spends its uneventful life hanging upside 

 down in the trees and living on leaves, but this giant sloth 

 was not a tree-climber. It lived on the ground, walking 

 upright like a kangaroo, and grazing on the branches of 

 trees. It may have stood twelve to fourteen feet in 

 height, and weighed a ton or more. 



The discovery caused a great sensation, and a London 

 daily sent out a special correspondent, Hesketh Prichard, 

 to explore the surrounding country and discover, if 

 possible, whether the giant sloth still survived. Mean- 

 time Germans living at Punta Arenas, the most southerly 

 town in America, sent a small expedition to explore the 



