GIANT SLOTHS AND ARMADILLOS, 
185 
they were engulfed. This idea is strengthened by information 
supplied to Mr. Darwin when in these parts (recorded in his 
Journal). An eye-witness told him that during the gran seco, or 
great drought, the cattle in herds of thousands rushed into the 
Parana, and, being exhausted by hunger and thirst, were unable 
to crawl up the muddy banks, and so were drowned. 
In the last great drought, from 1830 to 1832, it is probable 
(according to calculations made) that the number of animals that 
died was over one million and a half. The borders of all the 
lakes and streamlets in the province were long afterwards white 
with their bones. 
In the year 1882 reports were published of the discovery of 
large footprints — supposed to be human — in a certain sandstone 
near Carson, Nevada, U.S. The locality was the yard of the State 
prison, and the tracks were uncovered in quarrying stone for 
building purposes. Many different kinds of tracks were found, 
some of which were made by an animal allied to the elephant ; 
some resembled those of the horse and deer ; others seem to 
have been made by a wolf, and yet others by large birds. Those 
supposed to have been made by human giants were in six series, 
each with alternate right and left tracks. The stride is from two 
and a half to over three feet, and each footprint is about eighteen 
inches long. Now, those vdio believed these tracks to be human 
must have found it hard to explain how a giant with a foot some 
eighteen inches long had a stride no longer than that of an 
ordinary man of to-day, to say nothing of the fact that the straddle 
was eighteen to nineteen inches ! For these and other reasons 
Professor Marsh has exploded the idea of their having been made 
by men, and gave good reasons to show that they were probably 
made by a giant sloth, such as the Mylodon above mentioned, 
the remains of which have been discovered in the same strata. 
They agree in size, in stride, and in width between the right and 
left impressions, very closely with the tracks that a Mylodon 
would have made, and it seems that those of the fore feet were 
