46 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 



as the Mylodon or Morotherium, these ani- 

 mals, though belonging to a group whose head- 

 quarters were in Patagonia, having extended 

 their range as far north as Oregon. That the 

 tracks seemed to have been made by a biped, 

 rather than a quadruped, was due to the fact 

 that the prints of the hind feet fell upon and 

 obliterated the marks of the fore. Still, a little 

 observation showed that here and there prints 

 of the fore feet were to be seen, and on one 

 spot were indications of a struggle between 

 two of the big beasts. The mud, or rather 

 the stone that had been mud, bears the im- 

 prints of opposing feet, one set deeper at the 

 toes, the other at the heels, as if one animal 

 had pushed and the other resisted. In the 

 rock, too, are broad depressions bearing the 

 marks of coarse hair, where one creature had 

 apparently sat on its haunches in order to use 

 its fore limbs to the best advantage. Other 

 footprints there are in this prison-yard ; the 

 great round " spoor " of the mammoth, the 

 hoofs of a deer, and the paws of a wolf (?), indi- 

 cating that hereabout was some pool where all 

 these creatures came to drink. More than this. 



