184 SUPPLEMENTAHY NOTES. 



that a new world was open to his view : and to use his own expressive language, he found 

 himself in an ancient charnel-house, surrounded by a confused multitude of mangled skeletons 

 of a great variety of unknown beings. To arrange each fragment in its proper place, and 

 restore order to these heterogeneous materials, seemed at first a hopeless task : but a know- 

 ledge of the immutable laws by which the organization of animal existence is governed, soon 

 enabled him to assign to each bone, and even fragment, its proper place in the skeleton ; and 

 the forms of beings hitherto unseen by mortal eye appeared before him. " I cannot," he 

 exclaims, " express my delight in finding how the application of one principle was instantly 

 followed by the most triumphant results. The essential character of a tooth and its relation 

 to the skull being determined, all the other elements of the fabric immediately fell into their 

 proper places ; and the vertebra, ribs, bones of the legs, thigh, and feet, seemed to arrange them- 

 selves even without my bidding, and in the very manner I had predicted." The principles ^f 

 the correlation of structure which his profound researches in comparative anatomy had enabled 

 him to establish, conducted to these important results, and laid the foundation of that science 

 which has since received the name of Paleontology.' The mode of induction adopted by this 

 illustrious philosopher, has been the mighty instrument by which subsequent labourers in this 

 department of science have so largely contributed to our knowledge of the ancient condition 

 of the earth, and of the structure and economy of the tribes of beings which have successively 

 dwelt upon it. The examination of the fossil teeth (in Plate LXXII. figs. 4 — 9) showed that the 

 animals were herbivorous ; and the crown of the tooth being composed of two or three simple 

 crescents, as in certain pachydermata, proved that they differed from the ruminants, which have 

 double crescents, and each four bands of enamel. The two principal genera first established were 

 the PalcBotherium and Anoplotherium. The first approximates to the Tapirs in the number and 

 disposition of the teeth ; the second is remarkable in having no projecting canines, and in all 

 the teeth forming a continued series, as in the human race. Remains of both these genera 

 have been found in the eocene tertiary strata of the Isle of Wight,^ and on the coast of 

 Hampshire. 



X. Fossil Edentata. Megatherium, and Megalomjx. (Plates LXXII. and LXXIII.) — 

 The remains of these and other allied forms of the extinct gigantic Edentata, which once inhabited 

 South America, occur in immense quantities throughout the Pampas — ^those vast plains which pre- 

 sent a sea of waving grass for 900 miles. These plains consist of alluvial loam and sand, containing 

 fresh-water and marine shells of existing species ; they were evidently once, like Lewes Levels, 

 a gulf or arm of the sea. Since the pubHcation of Mr. Parkinson's work, vast numbers of bones 

 have been exhumed, and many most interesting specimens sent to England by Sir "Woodbine 

 Parish, and Charles Darwin, Esq., in whose charming "Journal of Researches into the Natural 

 History and Geology of the Countries visited during the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle round 

 the World," will be found many highly graphic notices of the discovery of these remains.^ 

 Mr. Darwin, under the head of Bahia Blanca,^ describes the remains of no less than nine great 

 quadrupeds found imbedded within the space of 200 square yards. They consisted of three 

 heads and other bones of the Megatherium, of enormous dimensions ; and bones of the Megalonyx. 



' A concise exposition of the Cuvierian inductive philosophy will be found in Wonders of Geology, pp. 137 — 147. 



2 See my Geological Excursions round the Isle of Wight. For an account of the fossil animals of Paris, refer to 

 Wonders of Geology, p. 254. 



^ Published by Mr. Murray, in one vol. 1845. The anatomical description of the fossil Edentata brought home by 

 Mr. Darwin, by Professor Owen, will be found in the " Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle." 



* Mr. Darwin's Journal, chap. y. p. 81. 



