ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 141 
Dr. C. F. Winslow, a former member of the Academy, being 
present communicated for record the following statement in order 
that investigations might be made upon the subject when oppor- 
tunity might occur hereafter. 
In 1853, in passing a barber’s shop on Kearny Street, he saw 
a fragment of a large bone, appearing to be a portion of a tibia 
of some gigantic quadruped or reptile. He purchased it and 
still has it in possession, stored at Boston with his collections. 
He sent it to Professor Leidy several years after obtaining it, 
and the Professor pronounced it to belong to a gigantic sloth of 
an extinct and undetermined form. He sent it also to Professor 
Baird of the Smithsonian Institute, that a cast of it in plaster 
might be taken for preservation in case of loss of the original. 
This fragment was in an excellent state of preservation. The 
history of its discovery and location is this: 
When workmen were engaged in digging a well, about the year 
1852, where Dr. frederick Zeile’s Baths are now located, (that is, 
in the rear of 524-528 Pacific Street, San Francisco,) at the depth 
of about 23 feet they struck a hard whitish object, which on 
being thrown out was discovered to be the leg bone of some large 
animal. It was broken into several pieces, and the barber se- 
cured this fragment which he preserved, and for which he wanted 
a big price. The Doctor succeeded in getting it for three dol- 
lars. He then found one of the men who had been employed to 
dig the well, and was informed by him that the excavation went 
through one of the limbs of the skeleton, and that the whole of 
the rest of it was still embedded in the yellow silt through which 
they dug till they came to water. The workman judged the 
depth at which the skeleton laid to be about 23 feet below the 
surface. 
When Dr. Zeile’s brick building was put up, Doctor Winslow 
observed that the rear wall just embraced the well within its 
area; and he has always considered it possible to reach the skel- 
eton without injury to the edifice, by careful excavation. 
This gigantic fossil is probably entirely new to Science, and 
would be of great value to the collections of the Academy. 
The Doctor hoped efforts might be made to explore this spot 
and obtain the bones. If the rest of the skeleton was as well 
preserved as the fragment he has, it could be easily and safely 
put together, and would be a priceless acquisition to the mu- 
seum, 
