REPORT ON GEOLOGY. 
403 
ment has been the importation from Buenos Ayres of far more 
complete remains of the Megatherium than had been previously 
obtained; hence we have learned that this gigantic animal 
approximated more nearly to the Dasypus (Armadillo) than to 
any other of the congenerous Edentata, in the possession of an 
osseous coat of plate armour ; a circumstance hitherto regarded 
as peculiar to the latter animal : it also possessed a long tail*. 
We have to deplore within the present year the loss of that 
illustrious naturalist who was the first to raise comparative 
anatomy to the rank of an exact science, and who, by his highly 
philosophical generalization of the constant coordinate relations 
of the animal structure, became at once the Newton of that 
science. Many an investigator, following in the paths he first 
pointed out, has reaped brilliant discoveries by the compara¬ 
tively easy labour of deciphering the remains before him by 
-the key fully furnished in the Ossemens Fossiles. It is espe¬ 
cially to be regretted that we have lost our great instructor 
before the completion of his elaborate work on Ichthyology had 
brought the fossil remains of this class under his review. On 
this subject our knowledge is as yet extremely confused. In 
our own island the Caithness schist, the magnesian limestone, 
the lias, the chalk, and the London clay, each present numerous 
species, and it is much to be desired that some competent 
naturalist should undertake a connected and exact anatomical 
investigation of all these remains. 
In the department relating to the invertebral fossil remains, 
every one interested in the subject must hail the splendid work 
of Goldfuss, which already includes the corals and radiaria, as 
the most copious, beautiful and accurate which has yet appeared. 
The accurate knowledge of the vegetable remains preserved 
* Prof. Buckland’s observations on these remains have afforded a model 
of the most philosophical inferential reasoning; deducing the probable habits 
of this extinct being from the data afforded by the organization of its skeleton ; 
and he has thus shown that organization, considered under these relations, to be 
as perfect and exquisitely adapted to the wants of the animal, as in any other 
work of the same creative intelligence: firmly planted on its colossal hinder 
extremities and one of its fore feet, the construction of the parts enabling it to 
bear such a position for any length of time without fatigue, it may have almost 
incessantly employed the remaining fore foot, by a swing backwards and forwards 
(for which it is expressly fitted), in scratching from the ground, by the three 
powerful claws with which it is furnished, those tubercular roots the common 
produce of the countries where it is found, and which the structure of its grinders 
indicate to have been its proper food. Its maily covering would have protected 
it from the annoyance which the sand and dust raised by this operation must 
have occasioned to any animal merely invested with an hairy coat; and its 
powerful tail would have defended it from the attack of any animal which might 
venture to approach it in this quarter. 
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