410 



tooth showed also, that it was certainly that of a sloth ; it possessing the 

 same simplicity of structure, and the same hollow in its middle, pro- 

 duced by attrition on the central bony part of the tooth. 



If the living analogue of this fossil animal existed, it could hardly, 

 from the vastness of its size, have been hitherto concealed. The bones 

 of its fore-arm are about a sixth longer than those of a common ox; and 

 supposing that the other parts possessed at least the same proportion, the 

 whole animal must have equalled the largest oxen of Switzerland, or of 

 Hungary. 



Plate XXI. Fig. 10, is the claw-bone of this animal, which was found 

 in America. On the middle of its articular surface is a well-marked 

 ridge, which necessarily restrained the motion of the joint. A similar 

 ridge exists in the ant-eaters and sloths; but nothing of the kind is dis- 

 coverable in the lion, or in any of the genus felis. 



Plate XXI. Fig. 11, is the tooth found by M. de Beauvois, in the ca- 

 verns in Virginia, as were the preceding bones. This tooth at once 

 determines the genus to which this animal belonged. It is the tooth of 

 an animal of the sloth kind. The ant-eaters have no teeth. 



About the same time that the extraordinary fossil remains of the me- 

 galonix were found in North America, several bones, equally extraor- 

 dinary and unknown, were found in the excavations made in the banks 

 of the river Luxan, a league south-east of a village of the same name, 

 about three leagues west-south-west of Buenos Ayres. These bones 

 were sent to the Royal Museum at Madrid, in 1789, by the Marquis of 

 Loretto, Viceroy of Buenos Ayres. The bones of a second animal of 

 the same kind, which were found at Lima, were also sent to the same 

 museum in 1795 ; and the bones of a third, which had been found at 

 Paraguay, were presented by -a. lady to Father Fernando Scio. Thus it 

 appears that the remains of this extraordinary animal exist in the most 

 distant parts of Southern America. 



On the first view of the head of this animal, the most striking agree- 

 ment is observed with those of the sloths, and particularly with that of 



