OF CREATION. 367 



contrivances thus alluded to is to give an unusually 

 large and irregular surface for the attachment of 

 those muscles which move the fore-leg. The blade- 

 bone or scapula is connected to the chest by a cla- 

 vicle or collar-bone, the absence of which in the 

 pachyderms and large ruminants is in accordance 

 with the habits of those animals. The collar-bone 

 gives a steady and fixed position to the socket of the 

 blade-bone, at the same time admitting of a rotatory 

 motion in the extremity. It is the possession of this 

 bone that enables many small animals to carry food 

 to the mouth by the fore extremity, but its chief use 

 seems to be to give strength and stability to the shoul- 

 der joint, so that it would be out of place in such 

 animals as the elephant, the deer, or the ox, whose 

 habits are different. In the megatheroid animals, 

 however, the head was small, the proportions of the 

 fore part of the body not excessive, and at the same 

 time there is no reason whatever to suppose that the 

 animal required to move rapidly. 



The shoulder-bone of the megathere is remarkable 

 for the enormous size of the lower part. It is small 

 in the middle and upper part, and is connected with 

 the blade-bone by a round head fitting into a socket 

 and admitting of free motion. At the lower end, 

 however, where it is attached to the arm-bones, it 

 attains an immense breadth, and served for the at- 

 tachment of muscles of extreme and unusual magni- 

 tude, working the fore-foot. The use of this expan- 

 sion is obvious, if we compare the shoulder-bone of 

 a ruminating animal, where the crests are scarcely 

 observable, with the corresponding bone in the ele- 

 phant and rhinoceros. In the ant-eater this con- 



