§ 31. MYLODON AND MEGALONYX. 169 



The Mylodon, like the Megatherium, was a vegetable 

 feeder, and probably browsed on the shrubs and branches 

 of trees. The arms are especially adapted for grasping 

 and wrenching; and though no trees could support the 

 weight of this enormous creature, there is nothing to forbid 

 the supposition that with its hinder feet it could clasp the 

 trunk of a large tree, and with its fore feet climb to a 

 sufficient height to seize and wrench off the branches. 



31. The Megalonyx. — An enormous curved ungueal 

 phalanx or claw-bone, and several bones of the arm and 

 sternum, of an animal related to the Sloths, were found 

 many years since in Big -bone Cave, one of the numerous 

 saltpetre caverns which occur in the states of Kentucky, 

 Tennessee, and Virginia. Some of these caves extend 

 many miles under ground, passing beneath hills, valleys, 

 and even rivers. In these subterranean retreats are some- 

 times found Indian mummies, which are simply desiccated 

 human bodies, in a fine state of preservation ; bones of 

 existing species of mammalia, and of mastodons, mammoths, 

 and rarely, of extinct gigantic sloths, also occur.* 



The remains of the Megalonyx were first described by 

 President Jefferson ; and the claw-bones, the largest of 

 which was nearly seven inches long, excited especial 

 attention, from the supposition that they belonged to a 

 carnivorous animal of marvellous size. But Cuvier, in 

 an admirable memoir, proved that they were referable 

 to an extinct form of the Edentata. I will endeavour 

 briefly to explain how this beautiful induction was esta- 

 blished. 



The paws both of the canine and feline tribes are armed 

 with claws ; in the former the nails are thick and coarse, as 

 in the dog, wolf, &c, and will bear the friction and pressure 



* See Dr. Harlan's Medical and Physical Researches, 1 vol. 8vo. 

 Philadelphia, 1845 : p. 319. 



