284 
EXTINCT MONSTERS 
greatly helped to augment the materials for arriving at a just 
conclusion with regard to its proper place in the animal kingdom. 
According to one writer, Spain formerly possessed considerable 
parts of three different skeletons. The first and most complete 
is that which is preserved in the royal cabinet at Madrid. This 
was sent over in 1789, by the Marquis of Loreto, Viceroy of 
Buenos Ayres, with a notice stating that it was found on the 
banks of the river Luxan. In 1795 a second specimen arrived 
from Lima, and other portions, probably not very considerable, 
were in the possession of Father Fernando Scio, to whom they 
had been presented by a lady from Paraguay. But two German 
doctors, Messrs. Pander and D’ Alton, who published in 1821 a 
beautiful monograph on the subject, state that they were unable 
in 1818 to find any traces of either the Lima specimen or that 
which had belonged to Fernando Scio. 
The remains collected by Sir Woodbine Parish were discovered 
in the river Salado, which runs through the fiat alluvial plains 
(Pampas) to the south of the city of Buenos Ayres, after a 
succession of three unusually dry seasons, “which lowered the 
waters in an extraordinary degree, and exposed parts of the 
pelvis to view as it stood upright in the bottom of the river.’' ^ 
This and other parts having been carried to Buenos Ayres by 
the country people, were placed at the disposal of Sir Woodbine 
Parish by Don Hilario Sosa, the owner of the property on which 
the bones were found. A further inquiry was instituted by Sir 
Woodbine; and on his application, the governor granted assist- 
ance, the result of which was the discovery of the remains of 
two other skeletons on his Excellency’s properties, at no great 
1 “ Some Account of the Eemains of the Megatherium sent to England from 
Buenos Ayres, by Woodbine Parish, Jun., Esq., F.R.S.,” by Wm. Clift, Esq., 
F.R.S., Geological Transactions, second series, vol. iii., p. 437. 
