i6o A TOXODON'S HEAD. [chaP 



entering the Rio Negro, I rode there accompanied by my 

 host, and purchased for the value of eighteenpence 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 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, embedded by itself on the 

 banks of the Rio Tercero, at the distance of about one 

 hundred and eighty miles from this place. I found remains 

 of this extraordmary 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 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 sub- 

 aqueous 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. 



By the middle of the day, on the 28th, we arrived at 

 Monte Video, having been two days and a half on the road. 

 The country for the whole way was of a very uniform 

 character, some parts being rather more rocky and hilly 

 than near the Plata. Not far from Monte Video we passed 

 through the village of Las Pietras, so named from some 

 large rounded masses of syenite. Its appearance was rather 



* 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 assist- 

 ance these valuable remains would never have reached England. 



