1883.] REMAINS OF THE TOXODON. 155 
considered a good day’s work to skin and stake the hides of fifteen 
or sixteen animals. 
November 26th.—I set out on my return in a direct line for 
Monte Video. Having heard of some giant’s bones at a neigh- 
bouring farm-house on the Sarandis, a small stream entering the 
Rio Negro, I rode there accompanied by my host, and purchased 
for the value of eighteen pence the head of the Toxodon.* When 
found it was quite perfect ; but the boys knocked out some of the 
teeth with stones, and then set up the head as a mark to throw at. 
By a most fortunate chance I found a perfect tooth, which exactly 
fitted one of the sockets in this skull, embedded by itself on the 
banks .of the Rio Tercero, at the distance of about 180 miles 
from this place. I found remains of this extraordinary animal 
at two other places, so that it must formerly have been common. 
I found here, also, some large portions of the armour of a gigantic 
armadillo-like animal, and part of the great head of a Mylodon. 
The bones of this head are so fresh, that they contain, accord- 
ing to the analysis by Mr. T. Reeks, seven per cent. of animal 
matter; and when placed in a spirit-lamp, they burn with a small 
flame. ‘The number of the remains embedded in the grand 
estuary deposit which forms the Pampas and covers the granitic 
rocks of Banda Oriental, must be extraordinarily great. I believe 
astraight line drawn in any direction through the Pampas would 
cut through some skeleton or bones. Besides those which I 
found during my short excursions, I heard of many others, and 
the origin of such names as “ the stream of the animal,” “ the 
hill of the giant,” is obvious. At other times I heard of the 
marvellous property of certain rivers, which had the power of 
changing small bones into large; or, as some maintained, the 
bones themselves grew. As far as I am aware, not one of these 
animals perished, as was formerly supposed, in the marshes or 
muddy river-beds of the present land, but their bones have been 
exposed by the streams intersecting the subaqueous deposit in 
which they were originally embedded. We may conclude that 
the whole area of the Pampas is one wide sepulchre of these 
extinct gigantic quadrupeds. 
* I must express my obligation to Mr. Keane, at whose house I was staying 
on the Berquelo, and to Mr. Lumb at Buenos Ayres, for without their 
assistance these valuable remains would never have reached England. 
