1833.J KEMAINS OF THE TOXODON. 15a 



considered a good day's work to skin and stake the hides of fifteen 

 or sixteen animals. 



November 26th. — 1 set out on my return in a direct line for 

 Monte Video. Having heard of some giant's bones at a neigh- 

 bouring farm-house on the Sarandis, a small stream entering the 

 Rio Negro, I rode there accompanied by my host, and purchased 

 for the value of eighteen pence the head of the Toxodon.* When 

 found it was quite perfect ; but the boys knocked out some of the 

 teeth with stones, and then set up tl e head as a mark to throw at. 

 By a most fortunate chance I found a perfect tooth, which exactly 

 fitted one of the sockets in this skull, embedded by itself on the 

 banks of the Rio Tercero, at the distance of about 180 miles 

 from this place. I found remains of this extraordinary animal 

 at two other places, so that it must formerly have been common. 

 I found here, also, some large portions of the armour of a gigantic 

 armadillo-like animal, and part of the great head of a Mylodon. 

 The bones of this head are so fresh, that they contain, accord- 

 ing to the analysis by Mr. T. Reeks, seven per cent, of animal 

 matter ; and when placed in a spirit-lamp, they burn with a small 

 flame. The number of the remains embedded in the grand 

 estuary deposit which forms the Pampas and covers the granitic 

 rocks of Banda Oriental, must be extraordinarily great. I believe 

 a straight line drawn in any direction through the Pampas would 

 cut through some skeleton or bones. Besides those which I 

 found during my short excursions, I heard of many others, and 

 the origin of such names as " the stream of the animal," " the 

 hill of the giant," is obvious. At other times I heard of the 

 marvellous property of certain rivers, which had the power of 

 changing small bones into large ; or, as some maintained, the 

 bones themselves grew. As far as I am aware, not one of these 

 animals perished, as was formerly supposed, in the marshes or 

 muddy river-beds of the present land, but their bones have been 

 exposed by the streams intersecting the subaqueous deposit in 

 which they were originally embedded. We may conclude that 

 the whole area of the Pampas is one wide sepulchre of these 

 extinct gigantic quadrupeds. 



I must express my obligation to Mr. Keane, at whose house I was staying 

 on the Berquelo, and to Mr. Lumb at Buenos Ayres, for without their 

 assistance these valuable remains would never have reached England. 



