68 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



main are at present the property of John Price Wether- 

 ill, Esq., and have been by him liberally deposited in 

 the Cabinet of the Academy of Natural Sciences of 

 Philadelphia. They consist of the following portions of 

 the skeleton, viz.: two claws of the fore feet ; a radius 3 

 humerus 5 scapula ; one rib, and several remnants of 

 ribs, os calcis, tibia, portion of the femur ; four dorsal 

 and one lumbar vertebrae ; a portion of a molar tooth ; 

 together with several epiphyses, the bones being por- 

 tions of the skeleton of a young animal, all occasionally 

 imperfect at their extremities. 



Recent bones of the bison, the deer, the bear, and a 

 metacarpal bone of the human finger, accompanied fhe 

 specimens, and were stated to have occurred in the 

 same cave with those of the Megalonyx; the latter, 

 strictly speaking, are not fossilized ; they retain a very 

 considerable portion of their animal matter, are much 

 more brittle and lighter than recent bones ; most of the 

 articulating surface are still covered, more or less, with 

 cartillage, tinged of a yellow color, One of the unguial 

 phalanges still retains the horney covering or nail, 

 also tinged of a yellow ochreous color. These bones 

 are stated to have been found on the surface of the floor 

 of the cave, uncovered by earth or stalagmite. Not 

 only the teeth, but other portions of the skeleton, were 

 found, on comparison with similar parts of the Jefferson 

 Megalonyx, to present differences estimated of sufficient 

 importance to constitute distinctive specific characters. 



In the same collection there are, a humerus, nearly per- 

 fect, nineteen inches long, and a metacarpal bone of an 



