MEGATHERIUM. 143 
connected contrivances, in the mechanism of a 
creature apparently the most monstrous, and 
seeming to present the most ill-assorted propor- 
tions, that occur throughout the entire range of 
the animal kingdom. 
We have here before us a gigantic quadruped, 
(see PL 5, Fig. 1), which at first sight appears 
not only ill-proportioned as a whole, but whose 
members also seem incongruous, and clumsy, if 
considered with a view to the functions and cor- 
responding limbs of ordinary quadrupeds : let us 
only examine them with the aid of that clue, 
which is our best and essential guide in every 
investigation of the mechanism of the animal 
frame ; let us first infer from the total composi- 
tion and capabilities of the machinery, what was 
the general nature of the work it was destined to 
perform ; and from the character of the most im- 
portant parts, namely, the feet and teeth, make 
ourselves acquainted with the food these organs 
w ere adapted to procure and masticate ; and we 
shall find every other member of the body acting 
the Isle of Skiddaway, on the coast of Georgia, which correspond 
with the skeleton at Madrid. Cuvier, Vol. V. part 2, p. 519. — 
In the year 1832, many parts of another skeleton were brought 
to England by Woodbine Parish, esq. from the bed of the river 
Salado, near Buenos Ayres : these are placed in the museum of 
the Royal College of Surgeons in London, and will be described 
in the Trans. Geol. Soc. Lond. Vol. III. N. S. Part 3, by my 
friend Mr. Clift, a gentleman from whose great anatomical know^ 
ledge, I have derived most important aid, in my investigation of 
\his animal. 
