FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 137 



sloths, since its teeth were conformed precisely like theirs. 

 From the resemblance of their feet he concludes that their gait 

 was similar, their movements alike, with the differences that so 

 considerable a volume of body in the one might have occa- 

 sioned. Thus, he observes, the megalonyx could but seldom 

 have climbed up trees, because it must rarely have found any 

 sufficient to support its weight. This difference of habit from 

 the bradypi, he considers no more surprising than what is found 

 to exist in the habits of animals of the genus felis, the small 

 species of which, such as the wild-cat and the lynx, climb trees 

 with facility, while the larger ones, such as the lion and the 

 tiger, rarely, if ever, do so. 



Before we altogether dismiss the fossil edentata, it is neces- 

 sary to notice an unguical phalanx, which appeared to have 

 belonged to some unknown animal of this order, probably of 

 the genus of the pangolin, but like the megatherium, of gigantic 

 dimensions. 



Those who understand the laws of comparative anatomy, 

 and have thoroughly studied the researches of the Baron, must 

 be satisfied that this single fragment is sufficient to prove that 

 animals, unknown at the present day, existed in more ancient 

 eras, and that some catastrophe has caused them to disappear 

 from the countries which they inhabited, and, in all probability, 

 annihilated them throughout the entire globe. 



The knowledge of this fragment, the Baron says, he was but 

 recently indebted for to M. Schley ermacher, librarian and pri- 

 vate secretary to the Grand Duke of Hesse, who sent him a 

 model of it in plaster. It was found, with many bones of 

 rhinoceros, mastodon, hippopotamus, and tapir, near Eppels- 

 heim, a canton of Alzey, in that part of the ancient palatinate 

 which at present belongs to the Grand Duke of Hesse, in a pit 

 of sand and gravel, supposed to have been accumulated by the 

 alluvions of the Rhine. 



On the first view, this fragment exhibits two very distin- 

 guishing characters of the order edentata. Its hinder facet for 



