120 
PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH. IV. 
of eighteen-pence.^ The people informed me that 
when first discovered, about two years previously, 
it was quite perfect, but that the boys had since 
knocked out the teeth and had put it on a post as 
a mark to throw stones at. They showed me the 
spot where it had been found after a sudden flood 
had washed down part of the bank. Several 
fragments of bone and of an armadillo-like case 
were lying at the bottom of the almost dry water- 
course. Some of these I collected, but from the 
disturbed state of the country the box in which 
they were packed was delayed on the road, and 
was afterwards sent direct to England. 
‘ For this reason the temporary marks by which 
I had distinguished these bones from another set, 
found at the distance of several leagues, were lost, 
and I am now’ unable to say which are the frag- 
This river (Rio Cancaraha) has 
been celebrated since the time of the Jesuit 
Falkner for the number of great bones and large 
fragments of the armadillo-like case found in its 
bed. The inhabitants told me that they had 
made gate-posts of some leg bones, and I myself 
saw two groups in situ of the remains of a mas- 
todon projecting from a cliff. But they were ■ in 
so decayed a state that I could only bring away 
small portions of a molar tooth.’ 
From the same collection Owen described the 
® This skull would probably entire skeleton is figured - in 
now fetch many pounds. An Natural Science, 
