358 ON THE FOSSIL BONES OF PACHYPERMATOUS QUADRUPEDS. 



remains of them on his route to Peru, and even that his guides pointed 

 out to him traces of the thunder by which they were destroyed*. 



Some of the teeth thus attributed to giants, are still preserved at 

 Lima, either in the Museum begun in 1792, or in the custody of 

 curious individuals f- 



It is most probably from a similar tradition, that one of the places 

 where these bones are found in the greatest abundance, lying near 

 Santa- Fe de Bogota, has received the name of the Giants'' Camp. 

 M. de Humboldt says, there was an immense collection of them there. 

 Those which he brought home from it are penetrated with marine salt. 



We find more frequent allusions to the giants' bones of Mexico 

 than to the former ; but as I have not seen any teeth coming from 

 South America belonging to the sjDecies at present under discussion, 

 I am inclined to think that those Mexican bones must belong to the 

 large species of Ohio, or to the fossil elephant ; for I know that both 

 are found in that country. 



A peculiarity connected with the bones of South America, is the 

 extraordinary height at which they are sometimes found. The Giants' 

 Camp is one thousand three hundred toises above the level of the sea. 



They are likewise found in the low places. In a letter to Joseph de 

 Jussieu, of which I shall again have occasion to speak, we read, that 

 as the inhabitants of St. Helena, near Guayaquil, were employed in 

 digging some wells, they discovered some immense bones, no doubt 

 belonging to this species. 



Dombey has not signified the place of discovery of the specimens 

 brought home by him ; he merely states that they were impregnated 

 with lumps of native silver. I have not been able to discover any 

 traces of it, but the bones were in several places incrusted with a hard 

 ferruginous sand, and as the spangles of the silver of Peru are fre- 

 quently found in the sand, it is possible that some might have been 

 attached to these specimens. 



Don George Juan % tells us that veins of silver are found in the 

 skeletons of the Indians who perished of old in the mines. Perhaps 

 there is some connexion in those two facts. 



■It is to be regretted that the pretended turquoises yielded by the 

 teeth exhumed at Simorre, have not acquired a sufficient value in the 

 market to induce a continuation of the works : had that been the case, 

 most probably we should now be in possession of a much greater num- 

 ber of the component parts of the animal to which they belong ; but 

 besides that the'greater part of them were deficient in consistency, and 

 split when submitted to the action of the fire, those which resisted 

 that action rarely assumed a perfectly uniform or brilliant colour. 



ADDITIONS TO THIS SECTION. 



Addition to page 350. 

 M. Rousseau, a farmer at AngervillC in Beauce, has sent me the 

 drawing of a large jaw tooth of the narrow- toothed mastodon, found 



* Voyage Round the World, by Legentil, 1728. 

 f Literary Journal of Goettingue, Feb. 27, 1 80 6. 

 X Travels in Peru, 4to. p. 527. 



