A LAND OF SKELETONS 7 
are found sticking out from the perpendicular cliffs, or 
barancas, bordering the river-valleys, while many are met 
with in sinking wells or making other excavations. In 
well-digging, of course, only a portion of a skeleton is 
obtained in the case of a large animal, which is the cause 
of the imperfect condition of many specimens in European 
museums, and it is only when excavations like those 
during the construction of the docks at La Plata or Buenos 
Aires are made, that entire skeletons are obtained, unless, 
indeed, special works are undertaken for the purpose of 
obtaining fossils. It does not, however, appear that the 
remains are at all evenly distributed through the mud of 
the Pampas, some localities being much richer than others, 
among these Lujan (pronounced Luhdn), near Buenos Aires, 
being especially notable. 
Although the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons 
contains an entire skeleton of a megalothere, together with 
the shell of a glyptodon, while the British Museum is the 
fortunate possessor of a complete specimen of a mylodon, 
the museums of Europe afford a very poor idea of the 
number and beautiful preservation of these marvellous 
fossils. To gain any idea of the true state of the case 
it is necessary to visit the museums of Buenos Aires and 
La Plata, and more especially the latter. There the visitor 
will be absolutely lost in astonishment at the long array 
of perfect mounted skeletons of numbers of these creatures, 
while the unmounted skeletons and isolated bones displayed 
in the wall-cases will convince him that I am_ not 
exaggerating when I call Argentina a land of skeletons. 
That the animals I have spoken of should have died off 
one after another through the long ages during which the 
mud of the Pampas was accumulating, is in accordance 
with what we should expect to occur, while the perfection 
