THK MEGATHERIUM. , J2J 



much more powerful. While in England and various parts of 

 the eastern continent, the elephants were congregated in im- 

 mense numbers, and the plains of North America covered 

 with herds of mastodons, another and more singular animal, 

 allied to the sloth, lived in the forests of South America ; we re- 

 fer to the Megatherium, or great beast. In the museum at Madrid, 

 there is a perfect skeleton of this animal, whose massive propor- 

 tions strikes the beholder with astonishment; it is represented 

 in the wood-cut below, and the proportions will be recognized on 



comparing the figure with that of an ordinary sized man, drawn 

 to the same scale. Its length is nineteen feet, breadth across the 

 loins, six feet, and height, nine feet. The feet of the hind legs 

 set at right angles, as in the bear; the heel projects behind, fifteen 

 inches, and the toes, armed with long claws, about twice that dis- 

 tance forward : so that a proper base is afforded for the support of 

 the immense body. The teeth of the megatherium were con- 

 stantly renewed. This apparently unwieldy animal is allied to 

 the sloth, but differs from it in the immense strength and mas- 

 si veness of its posterior portions. It is supposed they fed upon 

 the foliage of trees which they were enabled to uproot by their im- 

 mense strength. This idea is confirmed from the fractures of the 

 skull observed iu some of the specimens. Contemporary with 

 the megatherium, were several other allied species, which ranged 

 through the luxuriant forests of South America, while in England 



