814 
of the eruption of Vesuvius in 1898, and 
read a note by Professor Plalania on the re- 
cent eruption of Etna. 
An interesting investigation, initiated by 
Professor Kendall and others, is being car- 
ried on to ascertain the course of the under- 
ground waters in the Craveri (Carboniferous 
Limestone) district of Yorkshire. Common 
salt, salts of ammonia, and fluorescin were 
placed in quantity in the ‘sinks’ and the 
water issuing miles away was periodically 
analyzed with the result of tracking the 
course of several underground drainage sys- 
tems. 
The Geological Photograph Committee 
exhibited a large series of prints and 
gave an account of the year’s collection. 
It was resolved to publish a representative 
series of geological photographs if sufficient 
support was guaranteed to make the scheme 
self-supporting. 
W. W. Warts. 
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 
The Mysterious Mammal of Patagonia, Grypo- 
therium Domesticum. By RupoLPH HAU- 
THAL, SANTIAGO RotTH and ROBERT LEH- 
MANN NirscHe. Revista de] Museo de La 
Plata. Vol. IX. Pp. 409-474. 
Under the above title the authors have is- 
sued a series of papers containing 65 pages of 
text and accompanied by five plates ; dealing 
principally with that curious mammal to which 
Dr. Ameghino some two years ago gave the 
name of Neomylodon Listai. 
Ameghino based his generic and specific de- 
scriptions upon a few small endermal ossicles 
and certain stories or traditions said to be 
current among the Indians of Patagonia con- 
cerning ‘the existence of such an animal, and 
upon verbal descriptions of a piece of skin pre- 
sumably belonging to a large gravigrade eden- 
tate. This piece of skin was found in a des- 
sicated condition by Dr. Otto Nordenskjold and 
Mr. Hermann Eberhard in a cavern near Con- 
suelo Cove, in Last Hope Inlet, on the west 
coast of southern Patagonia. 
Dr. Ameghino’s announcement aroused great 
SCIENCE. 
(N.S. Vou. X. No. 257. 
interest and has been frequently noted, both in 
scientific and popular journals, chiefly on ac- 
count of the opinion advanced by him that this 
great sloth still exists in the interior of Pata- 
gonia and at present causes extreme terror 
among the Indians by its intensely predaceous 
habits ! 
During the past season Dr. Hauthal visited 
the cave from which the first piece of skin was 
obtained by Dr. Nordeskjéld and was success- 
ful in securing other pieces of skin associated 
with many bones and parts of skulls, showing 
the complete dentition. Associated with these 
remains he also found bones of other animals, 
principally belonging to the following genera : 
Homo, Felis, Canis, Equus, Onohippidium, Au- 
chenia, Mephitis, Rhea, etc., together with 
stone and bone implements, mingled with char- 
coal and charred fragments of bones. 
Dr. Hauthal gives a description of the cave 
with a diagram, showing where the more im- 
portant finds were made. He also mentions 
several other unexplored caves in the same 
neighborhood. 
Dr. Roth gives a classification and descrip- 
tion of the different mammalian remains found, 
and reaches the conclusion that the sloth to 
which the skin, described at second hand by 
Ameghino belonged, does not represent a new 
genus. This is shown bya study of the skulls, 
teeth and other parts of the skeleton, found 
associated with pieces of skin, and which, ac- 
cording to Roth are not generically distin- 
guishable from Grypotherium of Reinhardt, 
from the Pampean beds further north. 
Dr. Roth places little reliance on the tales 
purporting to come from the Indians regarding 
the terrible animal frequenting regions adjacent 
to the larger lakes and rivers of the interior 
and which are said to attack and carry off their 
horses. He believes that at most this is only a 
tradition among them of the former existence 
of a very large cat, a few remains of which 
were found in the cave, and which though at 
present extinct may have existed contempora- 
neously with the present Indians of Patagonia 
several generations ago. 
The habits attributed to this terrible animal, 
according to Ameghino by the Indians, are cer- 
tainly more like those we should expect to find 
