144 DR. p. p. MOEENO AND MK. A. S. WOODWARD ON [Feb. 21, 



February 21, 1899. 

 Prof. Gr. B. Howes, LL.D., F.E.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



The following papers were read : — 



1. On a Portion of Mammalian Skin, named Neomylodon 

 listai, from a Cavern near Consuelo Cove, Last Hope 

 Inlet, Patagonia. By Dr. F. P. Moreno, C.M.Z.S. 

 With a Description of the Specimen by A. Smith 

 Woodward, F.Z.S. 



[Eeoeived February 21, 1899.] 

 (Plates XIII.-XV.) 



1. Account oe the Discovery. By Dr. Moreno. 



lu November 1897 I paid a visit to that part of the Patagonian 

 territory which adjoins the Cordillera of the Andes, between the 

 51st aud 52nd degrees of South latitude, where certain surveyors, 

 under my direction, were carrying out the preliminary studies 

 connected with the boundary-line between Chile and Argentina ; 

 and in the course of this expedition I reached Consuelo Cove, 

 which lies in Last Hope Inlet. In that spot, hung up on a tree, 

 I found a piece of a dried skin, which attracted my attention most 

 strangely^ as I could not determine to what class of Mammalia it 

 could belong, more especially because of the resemblance of the 

 small incrusted bones it contaiued to those of the Pampean il/y^oc^on. 

 On inquiring whence it came, I was informed that it was only a 

 fragment of a large piece of skin which had been discovered two 

 years before, by some Argentine officers, in a cavern which existed 

 in the neighbouriug heights. Immediately on receiving this news, 

 I hastened to the spot, guided by a sailor who had been present 

 when the original discovery had been made. As, at that moment, I 

 had no means of making more than a few hurried excavations, 

 which gave no further traces of the discover}^ I left orders that 

 the search should be continued after my departure ; but this once 

 more also failed to give any ultimate results. Nothing could be 

 found but modern remains of small rodents, and these chiefly on 

 or near the surface of the ground. From the most careful 

 inquiries which I set on foot, it appeared that, when the first 

 discovery was made, no bones were found, the skin being half 

 buried in the dust which had accumulated from the gradual falling 

 away of the roof of the cavern, composed of Tertiary Conglomerate. 

 It was only in the broad entrance to the cavern that were found 

 a few human bones, borne thence to the shore of the Cove and 

 afterwards broken up. 



As already stated, the skin here presented to you formed but a 

 small part of a larger one. One small piece had been carried off 



