314 



the thigh-bones being extraordinarily broad in proportion to their 

 length. The trunk gradually tapered forwards to the long and 

 slender head. The fore-limbs had complete clavicles, and the rota- 

 tory movements of the fore-arm. All the limbs were provided with 

 long and strong claws. The animal had a long and muscular tongue, 

 and it is probable that its food might have been of a more mixed 

 nature than in the Megatherium. But it was more essentially related 

 to the Sloths than to the Ant-eaters. 



In conclusion the author remarks, that as our knowledge of the 

 great Megatherioid animals increases, the definition of their distinctive 

 characters demands more extended comparison of particulars. Hence 

 in each successive attempt at a restoration of these truly remarkable 

 extinct South American quadrupeds, there results a description of 

 details which might seem prolix and uncalled for, but which are 

 necessary for the proper development of the task of reproducing a 

 specimen of an extinct species. 



Professor Owen adds, that he is indebted to an allotment from the 

 Government Grant, placed at the disposal of the Royal Society for 

 scientific purposes, for the means of laying before the Society large 

 and admirably executed drawings of the fossil bones described in his 

 paper. 



II. "On the Evidence of the existence of the Decennial Inequality 

 in the Solar-diurnal Variations, and its non-existence in the 

 Lunar-diurnal Variation of the Magnetic Declination at 

 Hobarton." By Major-General SABINE, R.A., D.C.L., 

 Treas. and V.P.R.S. Received Nov. 17, 1856. 



(Abstract.) 



In a communication made to the Royal Society in the last Session, 

 " On the Lunar-diurnal Magnetic Variation at Toronto," the author 

 had stated that he could discover no trace of the lunar influence of 

 the decennial inequality which constitutes so marked a feature in the 

 solar magnetic variations. He has since read, in a memoir commu- 

 nicated to the Imperial Academy of Sciences at Vienna, entitled " On 

 the Influence of the Moon on the horizontal component of the Mag- 



