302 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA 



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 neighbouring 

 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 discovery, 

 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 thdt, 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 by Dr. Otto 

 Nordenskjold, and others by officers of the Chilian Navy, who later on 

 had visited the spot. The inhabitants of the locality looked upon it as 

 an interesting curiosity, some of them believing that it was the hide of a 

 cow incrusted with pebbles, and others asserting that it was the skin of a 

 large Seal belonging to a hitherto unknown species. 



In Consuelo Cove, I embarked on board a small Argentine transport, 

 which had been placed at my disposal to carry out the study of the 

 western coast as far as Port Montt, in lat. 42°. At this latter place 

 I left the steamer, which then proceeded to make a series of surveys. 

 These lasted until her return to La Plata, at the latter end of July 1898, 

 when she brought back to me the fragment of skin in question. 



This is an accurate and true version of the discovery of this skin, 

 which gave rise to the publication of Seflor Ameghino's small pamphlet,* 

 in which he gave an account of the discovery of a living representative of 

 the " Gravigrades " of Argentina, distinguishing it by the name of 

 " Neomylodon listai" 



I have an idea that Seflor Ameghino never saw the skin itself, but 

 only some of the small incrusted bones, of which he had obtained posses- 

 sion. The vague form in which he draws up his account compels me to 

 believe this suspicion to be true. 



* F. Ameghino, " Premiere Notice sur le Neomylodon listai, un Repr^sentant vivant 

 des anciens Edent6s Gravigrades fossiles de I'Argentina" (La Plata, August 1898); 

 translated under the title "An Existing Ground-Sloth in Patagonia," in "Natural 

 Science," vol. xiii (1898), pp. 324-336. 



