104 BAHIA BLANCA. Aug. 1833. 



noceroses and elephants over the Karros of Southern 

 Africa. 



After our long digression, if we return to the case of the 

 fossil animals at Bahia Blanca, there is a difficulty from our 

 not knowing on what food the great Edentata probably 

 lived. If on insects and larvee, like their nearest re- 

 presentatives the armadilloes and anteaters, there is an 

 end to all conjecture. But as vegetation is the first source 

 of hfe in every part of the world, I think we may safely 

 conclude that the country around Bahia Blanca, with a very 

 little increase of fertility, would support large animals. The 

 plains of the Rio Negro, thickly scattered over with thorny 

 bushes, I do not doubt would supply sufficient food equally 

 well with the Karros of Africa. As there is evidence of a 

 physical change to a small amount, so may we allow it to be 

 probable that the productiveness of the soil has decreased in 

 an equally small degree. With this concession I apprehend 

 every difficulty is removed. On the other hand, if we imagine 

 a luxuriant vegetation to be necessary for the support of 

 these animals, we become involved in a series of contra- 

 dictions and improbabilities. 



As the notices of the remains of several quadrupeds, which 

 I discovered in South America, are scattered in different 

 parts of this volume, I will here give a catalogue of them. 

 After having enlarged on the diminutive size of the present 

 races, it may be of interest to see that formerly a very 

 diflFerent order of things prevailed. First, the megathe- 

 rium, and the four or five other large edentata, already 

 alluded to; 6th, an immense mastodon, which must have 

 abounded over the whole country ; 7th, the horse (I do not 

 now refer to the broken tooth at Bahia Blanca, but to more 

 certain evidence) ; 8th, the toxodon, an extraordinary animal 

 as large as a hippopotamus ; 9th, a fragment of the head of 

 an animal larger than a horse, and of a very singular charac- 

 ter; 10th, 11th, and 12th, parts of rodents— one of con- 

 siderable size ; lastly, a llama or guanaco, fully as large as 

 the camel. All these animals coexisted during an epoch 



