14 



ZOOLOGY OF THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE. 



Mastodon angustidens, a species of which the fossil remains are by no means un- 

 common in several localities of Europe. Cuvier is also disposed to refer to the 

 same species the teeth of the Mastodon from Brazil and Lima, mentioned by 

 Dr. W. Hunter in his observations on the animal incognitum from the Ohio.* 

 The Megatherium has been scientifically described and illustrated in the works 

 of Bru, Cuvier, and D'Alton, whose accounts are founded on a nearly complete 

 skeleton of this stupendous quadruped which has existed in the Royal Museum 

 at Madrid for more than half a century. The few deficiencies in its osteography 

 have recently been supplied by the descriptions and figures given by Dr. Bucklandf 

 and Mr. Clift,J taken from remains of the Megatherium, brought by Sir Woodbine 



- 



Parish from Buenos Ayres, and which were discovered in the bed of the Rio 

 Salado, a tributary of the Rio Plata. Sir Woodbine Parish's collection from the 

 same locality, includes also remains of other species of extinct Edentata, which 

 have not yet been described. M. D'Orbigny, in his travels in South America 

 (vol. i. p. 96.), states that, in the banks of the Parana, he found the fossil 

 remains of a large quadruped, of the size of an Ox, — another quadruped of 

 the size of a Cat, apparently of the carnivorous order ;— and a third, a Rodent 

 as large as a Rat. 



This meagre condition of the historical part of the subject of South Ame- 

 rican fossils by no means arises from their actual scarcity. The writings of some of 

 the old Spanish authors, for instance, Torrubia, Garcillasso, and others,§ contain 

 frequent allusions to the bones of giants, who in times of old dwelt in Peru. Le- 

 gentil, also, in 1728, speaks as an eye-witness of these Peruvian remains ; and his 

 guides pointed out to him the traces of the thunder-bolts, by which the Anaks of 

 the New World had been exterminated. Bones and teeth of the Mastodon are, ac- 

 cording to Humboldt, so abundant in a locality near Santa Fe de Bogota in 

 Columbia, that to this day it bears the name of the " Field of Giants." 



But independently of these indications, the abundance and variety of the 

 osseous remains of extinct Mammalia in South America are amply attested by the 

 materials for the following descriptions, collected by one individual, whose 





Philosophical Transactions, vol. lviii. p. 34. (1768.) 



t Bridge water Treatise, p. 139. 



§ Quoted by Cuvier, Ossein. Foss. Ed. iv. torn. ii. p. 351. 



% Geological Transactions, vol. iii. p. 437. pi. 44, 45, 46 



