FOSSIL REMAINS 
229 
fossil bones which I brought from other parts of South Ame- 
rica, and which have been carefully examined bv M. Cuvier 
it is probable that the gigantic femoral bones “of Cumana- 
coa belonged to elephants of a species now extinct. It mav 
appear surprising that they were found in a place so little 
elevated above the present level of the waters ; since it is a 
remarkable fact that the fragments of the mastodons and 
fossil elephants winch I brought from the equinoctial regions 
of Mexico, J\ew Grenada, Quito, and Peru, were not found 
m low regions (as were the megatherium of Ilio Lux an* and 
V irgnna,t the great mastodons of the Ohio, and the fossil 
elephants of the the Susquehanna, in the temperate zone) 
but on table-lands having from six to fourteen hundred toises 
oi elevation. 
As we approached the southern bank of the basin of 
Cumanacoa, we enjoyed the view of the Turimiqniri .t An 
enormous waU of rocks, the remains of an ancient cliff, rites 
m the midst of the forests. Farther to the west, at Cerro del 
Luchnano, the chain of mountains seems as if broken by 
the effects of an earthquake. The crevice is more than a 
mndred and fifty toises wide, is surrounded by perpendi- 
f 18 Med with trees = the mterwoven brmiches 
of which find no room to spread. This cleft appears like 
, 0pened the fal]in K in of the earth. It is inter- 
sected by a torrent, the Eio Juagua, and its appearance 
* One league south-east from the town of Buenos Avres. 
T Ihe megatherium of Virginia is the megalonyx of Mr. Jefferson 
All the enormous remains found in the plains of the new continent, eithei 
north or south of the equator, belong, not to the torrid, but to the tempe- 
ate zone. On the other hand, Pallas observes that in Siberia, conse- 
quently also northward of the tropics, fossil bones are never found in 
mountammis parts. These facts, intimately connected together, seem cal- 
culated to lead to the discovery of a great geological law 
+ ■-ome of the inhabitants pronounce this name Tumuriquiri others 
Turumiqum or Turn riqniri. During the whole time of o m stay I 
Cumanacoa, the summit of this mountain was covered wilh clouds It 
appeared uncovered on the evening of the 11 th of September, but only 
tor a lew minutes. The angle of elevalion, taken from the great square 
ot Cumanacoa, was 8» 2' This determination, and the fj n n 
measurement which I made on the 13th, may enable us to fix, within 
a certain approximation, the distance of the mountain at six miles and a 
thud or 6,0o0 toises; admitting that the part uncovered by clouds was 
fioO toises above the plain of Cumanacoa. ' 
