Nov. 1833. 



TOXODON. 



181 



the same time it is peculiar to the continent in which the 

 remains of the gigantic Toiodon were discovered.^^ 



The people at the farm-house told me that the remains 

 were exposed^ by a flood having washed down part of a 

 bank of earth. When founds the head was quite perfect ; 

 but the boys knocked the teeth out with stones^ and then 

 set up the head as a mark to throw at. By a most fortunate 

 chance, I found a perfect tooth, which exactly fits one of the 

 sockets in this skull, embedded by itself on the banks of the 

 Rio Tercero, at the distance of about 180 miles from this 

 place. Near the Toxodon I found the fragments of the 

 head of an animal, rather larger than the horse, which has 

 some points of resemblance with the Toxodon, and others 

 perhaps with the Edentata. The head of this animal, as well 

 as that of the Toxodon, and especially the former, appear so 

 fresh, that it is difficult to believe they have lain buried for 

 ages under ground. The bone contains so much animal 

 matter, that when heated in the flame of a spirit-lamp, it not 

 only exhales a very strong animal odour, but likewise burns 

 with a slight flame.* 



At the distance of a few leagues I visited a place where 

 the remains of another great animal, associated with large 

 pieces of armadillo -like covering, had been found. Similar 

 pieces were likewise lying in the bed of the stream, close to 

 the spot where the skeleton of the Toxodon had been ex- 

 posed. These portions are dissimilar from those mentioned 

 at Bahia Blanca. It is a most interesting fact thus to dis- 

 cover, that more than one gigantic animal in former ages was 

 protected by a coat of mail,t very similar to the kind now 



* I must express my obligation to Mr. Keane, at wliose house I was 

 staying on the Berquelo, and to Mr. Lumb at Buenos Ayres, for without 

 their assistance, these valuable remains would never have reached 

 England. 



f I may here just mention, that I saw in the possession of a clergyman 

 near Monte Video, the terminal portion of a tail, which precisely re- 

 sembled, but on a gigantic scale, that of the common armadillo. The 

 fragment was 17 inches long, 1 1| in circumference at the upper end, and 

 8^ at the e.rtreme point. As we do not know what proportion the tail 



