OF CREATION. 



371 



the armadillpes and ant-eaters in certain peculiar con- 

 trivances for strength which in these living edentates 

 are connected with habits of digging and burrowing 

 beneath the surface of the earth. All the extinct 

 species we have yet discovered of the group attained 

 dimensions which seem to have unfitted them entirely 

 for any such habit, neither allowing them to climb 

 trees like the sloth, or to burrow like the mole, the 

 ant-eater, or the armadillo. 



We know that the general proportions of the 

 megatheroid animals resemble those of the elephant ; 

 but, although their body was relatively quite as large, 

 their legs were shorter and much thicker, and their 

 fore extremities were endowed with greater facili- 

 ties of motion. 



The head, moreover, is very diminutive, and the 

 neck, although longer, was not so much so as to 

 enable the animal to reach to any height above its 

 body. It is also quite certain that these animals 

 could not have had a long proboscis, and some had no 

 proboscis at all ; so that the question presents itself, how 

 they could have obtained the leaves of trees, which 

 the structure of their teeth shows to have been the 

 only food adapted for them. 



Now we have seen, in the course of our investiga- 

 tion concerning the peculiarities of structure of these 

 animals, that they exhibit in all cases very remark- 

 able modifications of the extremities, the hinder part 

 of the body being enormously large, powerful, and 

 massive, and bearing every mark of the greatest pos- 

 sible adaptation for resisting pressure, forming as it 

 were a point tfappui, from which the rest of the 

 body could act with safety and certainty. It is also 



