GEOLOGICAL COLLECTION. 



247 



from I do not know where. I was at last forced to plead 

 most entire innocence, and that I knew no more about the 

 plants which I had collected than the man in the moon." 



As to part of his Geological Collection he was soon able 

 to write : " I [have] disposed of the most important part [of] 

 my collections, by giving all the fossil bones to the College 

 of Surgeons, casts of them will be distributed, and descrip- 

 tions published. They are very curious and valuable ; one 

 head belonged to some gnawing animal, but of the size of 

 a Hippopotamus! Another to an ant-eater of the size of a 

 horse ! " 



It is worth noting that at this time the only extinct mam- 

 malia from South America, which had been described, were 

 Mastodon (three species) and Megatherium. The remains of 

 the other extinct Edentata from Sir Woodbine Parish's col- 

 lection had not been described. My father's specimens in- 

 cluded (besides the above-mentioned Toxodon and Scelido- 

 therium) the remains of Mylodon, Glossotherium, another 

 gigantic animal allied to the ant-eater, and Macrauchenia. 

 His discovery of these remains is a matter of interest in itself, 

 but it has a special im^portance as a point in his own life, since 

 it was the vivid impression produced by excavating them with 

 his own hands * that formed one of the chief starting-points 

 of his speculation on the origin of species. This is shown 

 in the following extract from his Pocket Book for this year 

 (1837) : " In July opened first note-book on Transmutation 

 of Species. Had been greatly struck from about the month 

 of previous March on character of South American fossils, 

 and species on Galapagos Archipelago. These facts (espe- 

 cially latter), origin of all my views."] 



* I have often heard him speak of the despair with which he had to 

 break off the projecting extremity of a huge, partly excavated bone, when 

 the boat waiting for him would wait no longer. 



