TIIE IIUMAN SPECIES. 161 



and culinary utensils. Cuvier, more profound and more 

 cautious, simply replied, " Pas encore," when he was asked 

 whether human bones, proved to be coeval with those of extinct 

 mammalia, had yet been discovered. This was in 1S24.* 



TRADITIONS RESPECTING EXTINCT SPECIES. 



Though the remains of Mastodon ang?istidcns, found on an 

 elevated site of Peru, of Toxodon, Macrauchenia, and Mylodon, 

 may, in America, point to a more remote antiquity, the bones 

 of Megatherium, in Brazil, are on or near the surface, in a 

 recent state, and in the same condition as those of Horse, often 

 accompanying them, whose bones arc, nevertheless, accepted 

 as belonging to an extinct species. Now, could they have 

 resisted disintegration during four or five thousand years, con- 

 sidering both of these to have lain exposed to, or, at least, 

 •vithin the influence of a tropical sun and the periodical rains? 

 Yet they occur often on the surface, and the bones of the pel- 

 vis have been used for temporary fire-places, by the aborigines, 

 wandering on the Pampas, beyond the memory of man. In 

 North America, although such remains as are now usually dis- 

 covered have lain sunken in clay or mud, deposited by former 

 lakes, the fact is not invariable ; and exclusive of Dr. Lund's 

 discoveries in Brazil, there are native legends which indicate 

 traditional knowledge of more than one species. Such is that 

 of the great Elk or Buffalo, which, besides its enormous horns, 

 had an arm protruding from its shoulder, with a hand at the 

 extremity (a proboscis). Another, the Tagesho, or Yagesko, 

 was a giant Bear, long-bodied, broad down the shoulders, thin 

 and narrow about the hind quarters, with a large head, power- 

 ful teeth, short and thick legs, paws with very long claws, body 

 almost destitute of hair, except about the hind legs; and, there- 

 fore, it was called " the Naked Bear." Further details arc fur- 



* In this, as in other cases, Cuvier made it a rule to answer only for 

 his own personal observation ; and the human skulls found in the Apen- 

 nines he c nsidcred as demanding further research. — See Appendix. 

 14* 



