1899.] NEOMYLODON LISTAI FROM PATAGONIA. 145 



by Dr. Otto Nordenskjold, and others by officers of the ChiHan 

 navy, who later on liad visited the spot. The inhabitants of the 

 locahty looked u]3on it as an interesting curiosity, some of them 

 beUeviug that it was the hide of a cow inerusted with pebbles, 

 and others asserting that it was the skin of a large Seal belonging 

 to a hitherto unknown species. 



In Oonsuelo Cove, I embarked on board a small Argentine 

 transport, which had been placed at my disposal to carry out the 

 study of the western coast as far as Port Montt, in latitude 42°. At 

 this latter place I left the steamer, wliich then proceeded to make 

 a series of surveys. These lasted until her return to La Plata, at 

 the latter end of July 1898, when she brought back to me the 

 fragment of skin in question. 



This is an accurate and true version of the discovery of this 

 skin, which gave rise to the publication of Senor Ameghino's 

 small pamphlet', in which he gave an account of the discovery 

 of a living representative of the " Gravigrades " of Argentina, 

 distinguishing it by the name of '" NeomyJoclon lista'i." 



I have an idea that Senor Ameghino never saw the skin itself, 

 but only some of the small inerusted bones, of which he had 

 obtained possession. The vague form in which he draws up his 

 account compels me to believe this suspicion to be true. 



My opinion is that this skin belongs to a genuine Pampean 

 Mylodon, preserved under peculiar circumstances resembling those 

 to which we owe the skin and feathers of the Moa. I have always 

 maintained that the Pampean Edentates, now extinct, disappeared 

 only in the epoch which is called the historical epoch of our 

 America. In the province of Buenos Aires, buried chiefly in the 

 humus, I have found remains of Panochthus, and others of the 

 same Mylodon from the sea-shore, all of which present the same 

 characteristic marks of preservation as the remains of human 

 beings discovered in the same spot. In this identical layer of the 

 sea-shore, close to the bones I have also found stones polished by 

 the hand of man, and flints cut like those found in the Pampean 

 formation. In 1884, in a cavern near to the Eio de los Patos, in 

 the Cordillera, I discovered some paintings in i-ed ochre, one of 

 which, in my opinion, resembles the Glyptodon on account of the 

 shape of the carapace. 



Ancient chroniclers inform us that the indigenous inhabitants 

 recorded the existence of a strange, ugly, huge hairy animal which 

 had its abode in the Cordillera to the south of latitude 37°. The 

 Tehuelches and the Genuakens have mentioned similar animals to 

 me, of whose existence their ancestors had transmitted the remem- 

 brance; and in the neighbourhood of the Eio Negro, the aged 

 cacique Sinchel, in 1875, pointed out to me a cave, the supposed lair 

 of one of these monsters, called " Ellengassen " ; but I must add 



1 F. Ameghino, " Premiere Notice siu- le Ncomylodon listai, un Eepresentant 

 vivant des anciens Edentes Gravigrades fossiles de I'Argentina" (La Plata, 

 August 1898) ; translated under the title " An Existing Ground-Sloth in Pata- 

 gonia," in ' Natural Science,' vol. xiii. (1898), pp. 324-326. 



Pboc. Zool. Soc— 1899, No. X, 10 



