162 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



therium, is also described by Cuvier (Oss. Eoss. vol. v., p. 142) ; and it may 

 also be seen in Jameson's " Translation of Cuvier's Revolution of the Globe." 

 The Madrid skeleton measured thirteen feet one inch in length, and is seven 

 feet four inches in height to the top of the back. It has been several times 

 figured. The finest series of plates illustrative of it are those of Pander and 

 D' Alton. 



The account given by the old traveller is amusing enough, but no naturalist 

 could have been a moment in doubt as to the character of the animal, which 

 belongs to the Edentata (root-eaters), very far removed from the Carnivores. 



I append, for the amusement of those who like quaint zoological descriptions 

 an extract from a Texas letter, relating the discovery of a great Pachyderm : — 



" The great local excitement here just now is the fact that within the cor- 

 porate limits of New Braunfals, within close pistol shot of the residence of our 

 worthy mayor, the bones of an immense mammoth or mastodon have been 

 discovered. I have not as yet visited the spot, or big hole in the ground, 

 where the digging is going on, but am told that the specimens so far dug up 

 promise a sizeable skeleton when all are put together, — say thirty odd feet long 

 by twenty odd in height. Barnum might make a new start in the world were 

 he now here to take advantage of this wonderful bringing to light of an un- 

 doubted curiosity. 



" The discovery was first made by some German well-digger, who fell upon a 

 huge shoulder-bone while prospecting underground for water. I will give 

 more and fuller particulars when they excavate deep enough or wide enough to 

 bring the entire " crittur" out, so that we can all see him, she, or it. If there 

 ever was a spot upon earth where a huge animal could find a good range, it is 

 right here, where the waters of the beautiful Guadalupe take in those of the 

 more beautiful Comal." We should like to know more of this find. 



But the most valuable book of reference on the subject is the splendid 

 " Memoir on the Megatherium or Giant Ground-Sloth of America," by Prof. 

 Owen, reprinted with additions from the Philosophical Transactions. A full 

 description of the Madrid specimen, which was found " in some excavation on 

 the banks of the river Luxan, which flows close by the town of the same name, 

 about thirteen leagues west-south-west of Buenos Ayres, in a ravine ten yards 

 in depth," is contained in a work of Don Joseph Garriga, entitled " Descripcion 

 del Esqueleto de un Quadrupedo muy corpulento y raro, &c. (Madrid, 1796). 

 George E. Roberts. 



'New Zealand Steel. — The following account of this remarkable deposit is 

 given in the " Australian Mail :" — " Ever since the settlement of New Zealand 

 by Europeans^ their attention has been daily called to the peculiarities of a 

 kind of metallic sand along the shores of New Plymouth, in Taranaki. 



" This sand has the appearance of fine steel filings, and if a magnet be dropped 

 upon it and taken up again, the instrument will be found thickly coated with 

 the iron granules. The place where the sand abounds is along the base of 

 Mount Egmont, an extinct volcano; and the deposit extends several miles 

 along the coast to the depth of many feet, and having a corresponding breadth. 



" The geological supposition is that this granulated metal has been thrown 

 out of the volcano along the base on which it rests into the sea, and there pul- 

 verised. It has been looked upon for a long time as a geological curiosity, even 

 to the extent of trying to smelt some of it ; but although so many years have 

 passed since its discovery, it is only recently that any attempt has been made 

 to turn it to a practical account in fact the quantity is so large that the people 

 ha\ e looked upon it as utterly valueless. It forms' a standing complaint in the 

 letters of all (he emigrants that when the sea-breeze was a little up they were 

 obliged lo wear veils to prevent being blinded by the fine sand which stretched 

 for miles along the shore. Captain Morshead, a gentleman in the west of 



