330 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA 



herbage, partly in dried excrement, and partly in the burnt residue, of the 

 same. Moreover, they must always have been subjected to intense dryness, 

 and the usual process of chemical alteration cannot have taken place. 



Considering all circumstances, I think that, even without chemical 

 evidence, zoologists and geologists cannot fail now to agree with Dr. 

 Moreno and his colleagues of the La Plata Museum, that the remarkably 

 preserved Grypotherium from the Patagonian cavern belongs to the extinct 

 Pampean fauna of South America, and need not be searched for in the 

 unexplored wilds of that continent. If we accept the confirmatory 

 evidence afforded by Mr. Spencer Moore, we can also hardly refuse to 

 believe that this great Ground-Sloth was actually kept and fed by an 

 early race of man. 



IV. Note concerning Tehuelche Legends. 

 By Hesketh Prichard. 



I now proceed to give the testimony of Dr. F. Ameghino, whose 

 brother Carlos was well acquainted with the country and who early 

 gave it as his opinion that the animal, which is named the Neomylodon 

 listai, was still living in Patagonia. In support of his opinion he 

 adduced tales which Carlos Ameghino had gathered from the Indians, 

 who roam the pampas, of a vast mysterious beast said by them to haunt 

 the distant lagoons and forests of the unexplored regions near the Andes. 

 These stories had, moreover, been confirmed in Dr. Ameghino's opinion by 

 the experience of the late well-known geographer and traveller, Seiior 

 Ramon Lista, who verbally told both Dr. Ameghino and his brother that 

 he had seen and fired at a mysterious creature, which, however, disappeared 

 in the brushwood and could not afterwards be traced. lie described it as 

 being covered with reddish-grey hair, and he believed it to be a pangolin 

 or scaly-anteater.* Taking all things into consideration. Dr. Ameghino 

 announced his conviction that the mysterious animal referred to was the last 

 representative of a group, long believed extinct, related to the Mylodor. 



According to Dr. Ameghino the Indians had bestowed upon the 

 mysterious animal the name of lemisch. Nothing would induce them to 

 penetrate into the supposed haunts of this monster. It was described as 

 amphibious, equally at home on land or in the water ; in remote 

 mountain recesses it lurked in caves, or had its lairs by the shores of 

 lonely lagoons and rivers, or at times lay in wait among the lower passes 

 of the Cordillera. In habits it was nocturnal, and its strength so great 

 that it could seize a horse in its claws, and hold itself down to the 

 bottoms of the lakes ! The head was supposed to be short and without 



* Pangolins, armadillos, and sloths are more or less related. 



