A LAND OF SKELETONS 77 



are found sticking out from the perpendicular cliffs, or 

 barancas, bordering the river- valleys, while many are met 

 with in sinking wells or making other excavations. In 

 well-digging, of course, only a portion of a skeleton is 

 obtained in the case of a large animal, which is the cause 

 of the imperfect condition of many specimens in European 

 museums, and it is only when excavations like those 

 during the construction of the docks at La Plata or Buenos 

 Aires are made, that entire skeletons are obtained, unless, 

 indeed, special works are undertaken for the purpose of 

 obtaining fossils. It does not, however, appear that the 

 remains are at all evenly distributed through the mud of 

 the Pampas, some localities being much richer than others, 

 among these Lujan (pronounced Luhan), near Buenos Aires, 

 being especially notable. 



Although the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons 

 contains an entire skeleton of a megalothere, together with 

 the shell of a glyptodon, while the British Museum is the 

 fortunate possessor of a complete specimen of a mylodon, 

 the museums of Europe afford a very poor idea of the 

 number and beautiful preservation of these marvellous 

 fossils. To gain any idea of the true state of the case 

 it is necessary to visit the museums of Buenos Aires and 

 La Plata, and more especially the latter. There the visitor 

 will be absolutely lost in astonishment at the long array 

 of perfect mounted skeletons of numbers of these creatures, 

 while the unmounted skeletons and isolated bones displayed 

 in the wall-cases will convince him that I am not 

 exaggerating when I call Argentina a land of skeletons. 



That the animals I have spoken of should have died off 

 one after another through the long ages during which the 

 mud of the Pampas was accumulating, is in accordance 

 with what we should expect to occur, while the perfection 



