1833.] REMAINS OF THE TOXODON. 147 



for which I ever saw mares used; was to tread out wheat from tho 

 car ; for which purpose they were driven round a circular enclosure, 

 where the wheat-sheaves were strewed. The man employed for 

 slaughtering the mares happened to be celebrated for his dexterity 

 with the lazo. Standing at the distance of twelve yards from the 

 mouth of the corral, 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, fasten 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 wholo 

 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 considered a good clays' work to skin 

 and stake the hides of fifteen or sixteen animals. 



November 26th. I set out on my return in a direct line for Monte 

 Video. Having heard of some giant's bones at a neighbouring 

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

 Eio 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. Eeeks, 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 throiigh the Pampas would cut through some skeleton 



* I must express iny obligation to Mr. Keaue, at whoso 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. 



