354 A. SMITH WOODWARD [Nov. 1899 
by Mr. Spencer Moore in view of the British Association meeting, 
He reports that it “consists in large part apparently of grasses, as the 
haulms, leaf-sheaths, fragments of leaves, etc., of these plants are 
frequent in it. A spikelet, almost entire, of what seems to be a 
species of Poa, and the flowering glume of another grass, probably 
Avenaceous, have also been found. JBesides these there is at least one 
dicotyledonous plant, almost certainly a herb, with a slender greatly 
sclerotised stem; though, as no attached leaves have so far been 
observed, its affinity is altogether doubtful.” Mr. Moore also observes 
that there are numerous siliceous particles in the excrement, and 
several pieces of the underground parts of the plants, as if they had 
been pulled out of the ground. At the same time, he finds a few 
pieces which have been sharply cut in a way which the blunt teeth 
of Glossotherium (Neomylodon) could scarcely act. Since Owen’s well- 
known and beautiful memoirs on JMegatheriwm and Mylodon, it has 
always been supposed that the gigantic extinct ground-sloths fed on 
twigs and the leaves of trees. If his conclusions are well-founded, as 
seems almost beyond dispute, Glossotheriwm must either have been an 
exception to the rule owing to local circumstances, or it must have 
been doomed to an artificial mode of hfe by man who fed it. The 
authors of the memoir published by the La Plata Museum are all in 
favour of the latter view; and Dr. Lehmann-Nitsche even suggests 
that the famous cracked and repaired skull of Mylodon in the Royal 
College of Surgeons, immortalised by Owen, was not accidentally 
damaged by a falling tree, but bears the mark of an encounter with 
man in which the animal escaped. He mentions five similarly fractured 
skulls in the La Plata Museum. 
Personally, we find it as difficult to believe that Glossotherium was 
a domesticated animal among the ancient Patagonians, as that it still 
lives in the wilds of the southern land where its remains are found. 
Dr. Hauthal’s splendid discoveries only have the effect of making us 
eager for more. Mr. Graham Kerr’s interesting speech at the British 
Association, expressing the opinion of one who has considerable ex- 
perience of the South American Indian tribes, leaves little hope that 
huntsmen will ever find the beast. The Indians, in his opinion, are 
too keen field-naturalists to have escaped noticing the animal if it 
lives in their country. They know every track and trail. The 
impalpable character of the dust in the cave alone suggests intense 
dryness, and strongly confirms Dr. Moreno’s idea that all the remains 
in Cueva Eberhardt are of great antiquity, notwithstanding their fresh 
aspect. More cave exploration in southern Patagonia is therefore 
urgently to be desired. 
British MuskuM 
(Natural History Department), 
Lonpon, 8S. W. 
