198 BAi\DA ORIEiNTAL. 



distance of twelve yards from the moutli of the cor- 

 ral, he has laid a wager that he would catch by the 

 legs every animal, without missing one, as it rushed 

 past him. There was another man who said he 

 would enter the corral on foot, catch a mare, fast- 

 en her front legs together, drive her out, throw her 

 down, kill, skin, and stake the hide for drying 

 (which latter is a tedious job) ; and he engaged 

 that he would perform this whole operation on 

 twenty-two animals in one day ; or he would kill 

 and take the skin off fifty in the same time. This 

 would have been a prodigious task, for it is consid- 

 ered a good day's work to skin and stake the hides 

 of fifteen or sixteen animals, 



November 2Qth. — I set out on my i-etum in a di- 

 rect line for Monte Video. Having heard of some gi- 

 ant's bones at a neighbouring farm-house on the Sar- 

 andis, a small stream entering the Rio Negro, I rode 

 there, accompanied by iny host, and purchased for 

 the value of eighteen pence the head of the Toxo- 

 don.* When found it was quite perfect ; but the 

 boys knocked out some of the teeth with stones, and 

 then set up the 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, em- 

 bedded 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, 

 according to the analysis by Mr. T. Reeks, seven 



* 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 vahiable remains would never 

 have reached England. 



