162 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
therium, is also described by Cuvier (Oss. Toss. vol. v., p. 142) ; and it may 
also be seen in Jameson's "Translation of Cuvier's devolution of the Globe." 
Tlic Madrid skeleton measured tliirteen 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, vhich 
belono-s 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, Avithin 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 advautage 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 excavBte 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 cf 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 " Descri])cion 
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 chere 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 yeai's 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 
have looked upon it as utterly valueless. It forms a standing complaint in the 
letters of all the emigrants that when the sea-breeze was a little up they were 
obliged to wear veils to prevent being blinded by the fine sand which stretched 
for miles along the shore. Captain Morshead, a gentleman in the wQst of 
