290 



SCENES OF ANCIENT DAYS. 



THE SKELETON OF THE MEGATHEKE. 



digging away below, scooping out the soft soil from between 



the roots ; and it is 



mar\ ellous to note how 

 rapidly he lays them 

 bare with those great 

 shovel-like claws of his. 

 Now he rears himself 

 again ; straddles wide 

 on his hind-feet, fix- 

 ing the mighty claws 

 £_ deep in the ground ; 

 plants himself firmly 

 on his huge tail, as 

 on the third foot of a 

 tripod, and once more grasps the tree. The enormous hind- 

 quarters, the limbs and 

 ?^$ '-L.^'^V^Vv*! the loins, the broad 



~^ "^^ '- i- t: '~'-~^K^^ ^-^ C^rfMiP nr\i'r\ cm-^t^ It^i n rr QV\iTn_ 



'^i cord, supplying abun- 

 ^ dant nervous energy 

 to the swellino; muscles 

 inserted in the ridged 

 ."^ and keeled bones, all 

 ^4 come into pla}- as a 

 g point aappui for the 

 Herculean effort." * 

 " And now conceive 

 ,^_^-^M'^^'^^ the massive frame ot 

 the megathere con- 

 vulsed with tlie mighty wrestling, every vibrating fibre re- 



* Gosse's " Natural History." 



THE MEGATHERE, KESTORED. 



