A Tomb of Giants. 49 



seen to be leafless, the branches being covered by- 

 hundreds of objects, the offerings of the Indians, 

 who reverenced it as the altar of Walleechu, such as 

 cigars, pieces of cloth, bits of meat, strings, fruit, 

 and a variety of singular articles. Around the tree 

 was a circle of bones, the sacrifices of horses, which 

 the Indians had made. The Gauchos, though igno- 

 rant, as we have seen, looked with contempt upon 

 the tree, and said that they had often witnessed the 

 ceremonies of the Indians, waiting until the latter 

 had disappeared, to help themselves to such articles 

 as possessed any value. 



The young naturalist here first encountered the 

 agouti, and he notes it as a singular fact that, while 

 in 1670 the animal was found much farther to the 

 south, it now occupied a restricted area. 



From Bahia Blanca, which was reached in the 

 latter part of August, Darwin travelled overland to 

 Buenos Ayres. The former was one of the most in- 

 teresting localities he had visited, as here he discov- 

 ered a veritable tomb of the lost races of a former 

 age. Upon the beach, within an area of two hun- 

 dred yards, he took out, after no little labour, the re- 

 mains of nine large quadrupeds. They included the 

 megatherium — a sloth-like animal, the megalonyx — 

 an allied form, the scelidotherium^ — an animal as large 

 as a rhinoceros, with a head, according to Professor 

 Owen, who described the remains, resembling that 

 of the Cape ant-eater, or the armadillos. Besides 

 these, he found another giant, which when described 

 was named after him, Mylodon Darivinii ; also a 

 gigantic armadillo, with a colossal armour, separated 



