1831-1841.] DR. BUCKLANUS ADDRESS. 
133 
three legs as easily or more easily than other animals stand 
on four. The whole structure of his posterior extremities 
was rigid ; the pressure was all perpendicular ; he stood 
like the poles of a scaffold—there was no muscular exertion 
to keep them in their place, therefore he was never 
fatigued. 
“ I say he fed on potatoes ; he lived in those sandy 
barren plains of the Pampas where you have roots of that 
description. If his potatoes had been planted by nature 
more than one foot and six inches deep in the earth, he 
would have starved before he could have got them. Pota¬ 
toes, as every one knows, grow from two inches to one foot 
below the surface of the earth ; therefore I say the capacity 
of his engine for digging and delving shows the depths of 
the soil where these roots grew which formed his food. 
We find in addition to that nose a snout, a little longer 
than that which the tapir now has. The snout would 
pick up the food as the tapir does, and would put it in 
as the elephant puts in his apples, and with those sixteen 
pegs, as they are contemptuously and sillily called, those 
beautiful engines which keep themselves constantly set, he 
would munch and munch till he was satisfied. His busi¬ 
ness was to be a gardener, a digger, and culler of simples ; 
he was a digger up of potatoes and other roots ; he stood 
still in dignified composure, and all his concern with other 
animals was to keep himself from their annoyance ; he 
troubled not them, and woe be to the least beast who 
dared to trouble him ! ” 
This account of the first meeting under the presidency 
of Dr. Buckland may be fitly closed with the concluding 
words of his address :— 
“ I congratulate each individual here present on the 
attainment of what I consider almost the highest beati- 
fication of which we are capable in our present state—the 
attainment of that personal knowledge and familiar inter¬ 
course which this meeting affords with those whose kindred 
minds and congenial pursuits have been long familiar to 
