378 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES 



port the body. The hind legs are set, and the 

 animal, lifting itself up like a huge kangaroo, grasps 

 the tree with its fore-legs at as great a height as 

 possible, and firmly grapples it with the muscles of 

 the trunk, while the pelvis and hind limbs, animated 

 by the nervous influence of the unusually large spinal 

 cord, combine all their forces in the effort about to be 

 made. And now conceive the massive frame of the 

 Megatherium convulsed with the mighty wrestling, 

 every vibrating fibre reacting upon its bony attach- 

 ment with the force of a hundred giants : extraor- 

 dinary must be the strength and proportions of the 

 tree, if, when rocked to and fro. to right and left, in 

 such an embrace, it can long withstand the efforts of 

 its assailant." (Owen, on the Mylodon.) The tree 

 at length gives way; the animal, although shaken and 

 weary with the mighty effort, at once begins to strip 

 off every green twig. 



The effort, however, even when successful, was not 

 always without danger.* The tree in falling would 

 sometimes by its weight crush its powerful assailant, 

 and the bulky animal, unable to guide it in its fall, 

 might often be injured by the trunk or the larger 



* In the specimen of Mylodon, in the College of Surgeons, the skull 

 has undergone two fractures during the life of the animal, one of which is 

 entirely healed and the other partially. The former exhibits the outer 

 tables broken by a fracture four inches long, near the orbit. The other 

 is more extensive, and behind, being five inches long, and three broad, 

 and over the brain. The inner plate has in both these cases defended 

 the brain from any serious injury, and the animal seems to have been re- 

 covering from the latter accident at the time of its death. (See Professor 

 Owen's memoir " On the Mylodon,' 1 &c., p. 22, et passim. Many of the 

 remarks in the present chapter have been borrowed from this admirable 

 monograph.) 



