London . These remainswere found in the river Salado, which runs through the Pampas, or fiat alluvialplains to the south of the city of Buenos Ayres. The immediate cause of this dis-covery was the unusual succession of three dry seasons, ^vhich caused the water tosink very low, and exposed the bone of the pelvis to view as it stood upright inthe river. The cast in the Museum here is, as we have before stated, only of thehinder parts of the animal, which, in their startling magnitude, provoke a verynatural desire for a glimpse of the entire creature to which they belonged. Letthe reader, then,
London . These remainswere found in the river Salado, which runs through the Pampas, or fiat alluvialplains to the south of the city of Buenos Ayres. The immediate cause of this dis-covery was the unusual succession of three dry seasons, ^vhich caused the water tosink very low, and exposed the bone of the pelvis to view as it stood upright inthe river. The cast in the Museum here is, as we have before stated, only of thehinder parts of the animal, which, in their startling magnitude, provoke a verynatural desire for a glimpse of the entire creature to which they belonged. Letthe reader, then, look at the following engraving (in which the simple outlineshows the extent of the Madrid skeleton, the pale tint the corresponding parts inthe College, and the dark tint the additional parts which are wanting in theskeleton at Madrid), and at the same time reflect that its general dimensions areabout fourteen feet in length and about eight in height, that the upper part of THE COLLEGE OF SURGEONS. 205. [Skeleton of Megatherium.] its tail must have measured at least two feet across, that its thigh-bone is twice thesize of that of the largest known elephant, that its heel-bone actually weighs morethan the entire foot of the great elephant whose skeleton is in the Museum (andwhich we shall presently have to mention), and that its fore-foot must have ex-ceeded a yard in length. Thus heavily constructed, says Dr. Buckland, in aneloquent passage in his Bridgewater Treatise/ it could neither run, nor leap,nor climb, nor burrow under the ground, and in all its movements must havebeen necessarily slow; but what need of rapid locomotion to an animal whoseoccupationof digging roots for food was almost stationary ? . . His entire framewas an apparatus of colossal mechanism, adapted exactly to the work it had todo; strong and ponderous in proportion as the work was heavy, and calculatedto be the vehicle of life and enjoyment to a gigantic race of quadrupeds, which,though they have ceased
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