NOTICE OF THE MEGATHERIUM. 
21 
Let us suppose these animals once more upon their feet and clothed with flesh — each obey- 
ing his own native instinct. We are at a spot upon the wide plain where numerous bare 
trunks of trees, stripped of their verdure and decaying upon the ground, mark the vicinity of 
the great leaf-eating tribe. A group of the smaller Megatheroid animals — each one, indeed, a 
giant in his way — -are following along this line of devastation, feeding upon such smaller 
bushes as may still remain, tearing them up by the roots, or browsing their low bending 
branches. Yonder is a Megalonyx, resting on his haunches, and, with his long arm and claw 
reaching over the spiny fence of the protruding leaves of the gigantic aloe, is wrenching out 
its saccharine stalk. Near by, the kindred Mylodon is lifting itself up, Kangaroo-like, against 
the trunk of a still upright tree, and is busily engaged with its fore-arm in breaking off the 
lower branches. Auother great Sloth, — the Scelidotherium — walks leisurely here and there, 
browsing upon the flowery cactus. But presently the Megatherium himself appears, toiling 
slowly on from some great tree recently laid low and stripped of its leafy covering. The 
earth groans under the enormous mass ; each step pushes one side or crushes beneath it the 
plants which grow in its path ; but the monster continues to advance towards a noble tree, 
which until now has been unassailed, the monarch of the primeval forest. For awhile he 
pauses before it, as if doubting whether, having resisted the storms of so many seasons, it will 
yield even to his vast strength. But soon his resolution is taken. Having set himself to the 
task, he first loosens the soil around the larger roots by means, of his powerful claws, stopping 
at times to rest himself and to contemplate the mighty task which is before him. Then, march- 
ing close to the tree, he plants carefully and firmly his monstrous hind-feet, striking their claws 
deeply into the ground. Then lifting himself slowly upon these, and upon his massive tail, 
bent downwards to assist in his support, he grasps the trunk with his fore-legs at as great a 
height as possible, grappling it with his claws, and nerving for the effort all the muscles of his 
powerful frame. 
Then, suddenly throwing the immense weight of its body first to one side and then to the 
other, in its mighty wrestling, it sways the tree to and fro, with the force of a hundred giants, 
causing it to tremble to its topmost bough, and at length it falls with a feaiful crash. The 
animal, although shaken and weary with the mighty effort, moves forward to its blanching 
top, when, having assumed a reclining position, it at once proceeds to strip off every green 
twig. Leaving the huge beast, we discover, by the borders of a swampy tract, one of the 
strangest animals which ever existed. This is the Toxodon — an elephantive monster related 
to the Gnawers, yet aquatic like the Dugong and Manatee. Further off' upon the plain, we 
see the Macrauchenia — half Camel, half Tapir in its structure ; while from another side slow, 
ly advances with heavy tread the Glyptodon with its ponderous coat of mail. A troup of wfild 
animal carcasses which a mighty river like the Plata would bear down upon the waters of its periodical freshets^ 
and deposit far and wide in the muddy shoals one either side of its mouth. Lyell, in his Principles of Geology , 
(chapter xlviiii.) has collected numerous instances of the vast destruction of wild and domestic animals which 
accompanies the sudden floods to which many large rivers in various parts of the world are liable. Sir Wood- 
bine Parish, in speaking of one of these inundations of the Parana — a tributary of the Plata, — says that vast 
herds of cattle were swept away, “ and when the waters began to subside, and the islands which they had 
covered became again visible, the whole atmosphere for a time was poisoned by the effluvia from the innumerable 
carcasses of skunks, capybaras, tigers, and other wild beasts which had,been drowned." 
