104 



BAHIA BLANCA. 



Aug. 1833. 



noceroses and elephants over the Karros of Southern 

 Africa. 



After our long digression^ if we return to the case of the 

 fossil animals at Bahia Blanca^ there is a difficulty from our 

 not knowing on what food the great Edentata probably 

 lived. If on insects and larvee^ like their nearest re- 

 presentatives the armadilloes and anteaters^ there is an 

 end to all conjecture. But as vegetation is the first source 

 of life in every part of the worlds I think we may safely 

 conclude that the country around Bahia Blanca, with a very 

 little increase of fertility^ would support large animals. The 

 plains of the Rio Negro^ thickly scattered over with thorny 

 bushes^ I do not doubt would supply sufficient food equally 

 well with the Karros of Africa. As there is evidence of a 

 physical change to a small amount^ so may we allow it to be 

 probable that the productiveness of the soil has decreased in 

 an equally small degree. With this concession I apprehend 

 every difficulty is removed. On the other hand^ if we imagine 

 a luxuriant vegetation to be necessary for the support of 

 these animals^ we become involved in a series of contra- 

 dictions and improbabilities. 



As the notices of the remains of several quadrupeds^ which 

 I discovered in South America^ are scattered in different 

 parts of this volume^ I will here give a catalogue of them. 

 After having enlarged on the diminutive size of the present 

 races^ it may be of interest to see that formerly a very 

 different order of things prevailed. First, the megathe- 

 rium, and the four or five other large edentata, already 

 alluded to; 6th, an immense mastodon, which must have 

 abounded over the whole country ; 7th, the horse (I do not 

 now refer to the broken tooth at Bahia Blanca, but to more 

 certain evidence) ; 8th, the toxodon, an extraordinary animal 

 as large as a hippopotamus ; 9th, a fragment of the head of 

 an animal larger than a horse, and of a very singular charac- 

 ter; 10th, 11th, and 12th, parts of rodents— one of con- 

 siderable size ; lastly, a llama or guanaco, fully as large as 

 the camel. All these animals coexisted during an epoch 



