DARWIN 113 



ghost-world came to our own day. At that time 

 the armour of the gigantic armadillo, the glyptodon, 

 that had formed shelters over the heads of the 

 human dwellers in the pampas, like Esquimaux 

 huts, had not yet been discovered. The cave of 

 Ultima Esperanza in Patagonia had not been 

 searched, and no one had seen the red-haired coat 

 of the sloth as large as an ox, the grypotherium 

 (a relative of the real megatherium), cut by some 

 prehistoric human hand, amongst a heap, several 

 yards deep, of the animal's manure in such pecu- 

 liar circumstances as to prompt the suggestion that 

 the giant-sloths had been kept tame in the cavern, 

 as in a cyclopean stable, by prehistoric Indians. 

 Darwin thought the remains were very old, though 

 this by no means lessened the inspiration. 



As our geological Hamlet speculated over these 

 bones of extinct monsters, the ideas of Linne and 

 Cuvier struggled fiercely in his mind with the 

 new, heretical ideas inspired by Lyell. How was 

 it that these ancient, extinct animal forms of 

 America resembled in every detail and in the most 

 marked characteristics certain living American 

 animals? Before him were the relics of past 

 sloths, armadilloes, and giant-llamas. In the actual 

 America, also, there were sloths, armadilloes, and 

 llamas, though with some difference. And no- 

 where else on earth, either in past or present 

 time, were there sloths, armadilloes, and llamas. 

 Cuvier had replied, God ha,d pleased to create 

 those ancient megatheria, glyptodons, and ma- 

 crouchenias of America. Then, one day, he sent 



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