Marvels of the Universe 663 
must, therefore, have lived 
by eating grass, browsing 
upon low herbage, reaching 
the lower branches of taller 
trees, bending down sap- 
lings, or by bodily uproot- 
ing the larger trees whose 
foliage was out of their 
reach. For this latter task 
their powerful fore-limbs, 
armed with strong claws, 
were well fitted, while their 
massive hind-quarters and 
short, thick tail were ad- 
mirably adapted for sup- 
porting, tripod-fashion, the 
weight of the body when 
upreared to reach the 
branches overhead. It is 
likely enough, too, that 
the mouth was provided 
with a long, prehensile 
tongue like that of a 
giraffe, and that the upper 
lip and nose, at least in 
Megatherium, were  pro- 
longed into a proboscis Showing the inner side, with the little bosses, or ‘‘nodules,"” of bone, close-set in 
resembling that of a tapir. the hide, which thickened and strengthened it till it was as impervious yet as flexible 
There were a_ great 
many different kinds of Ground Sloths in South America besides Megatherium and Mylodon, 
and both of these spread northwards into North America. Most of them, however, were 
restricted in distribution to South America, where they became extinct long before mankind 
made his way from his cradle in the Old World into the New. But not all of them. Some managed 
to hold their own down to comparatively recent times, and survived, beyond doubt, until Argentina 
and Patagonia were occupied by men of the same race as those that were found in those countries 
by the first European settlers that landed there. It is, indeed, quite possible that some of these 
settlers might have seen the Ground Sloths alive had they penetrated sufficiently far into the 
interior. 
Photo by] [H. J. Shepstone. 
THE SKIN OF THE GIANT SLOTH. 
as chain-mail. 
This possibility rests upon the comparatively recent discovery of the remains of species related to 
Mylodon in a cave on one of the inlets of the sea in Patagonia. Not only were bones here found, 
but such perishable portions of the animals as pieces of skin, stained with streaks of blood, covered 
with adherent hair, and, generally speaking, in such a remarkably fresh state of preservation, that, 
making all due allowance for the protection against damp and the destructive effects of weather 
provided by the cavern, it is impossible to believe they can have lain there for many hundreds of 
years. Mixed up with these remains, too, were bone-awls fashioned by man ; and many of the bones 
of the Ground Sloths had muscular tendons attached to them, and appeared to have been split by the 
hand of man for the extraction of their marrow. Nor was this all. There was a quantity of dried 
cut grass on the sandy floor of the cave, and pieces of dung, composed apparently of digested 
remains of this hay and believed to be the droppings of this Sloth, were also discovered. By 
