CHAPTER XXI

HOMEWARD

Winter comes on -- Departure from Lake Argentino --

Changed aspect of country -- Snow-clouds -- Indian

encampment -- Race with the snow -- River Coyly -- River

Gallegos -- Ford -- Signs of civilisation -- Gallegos --

Taking passage in steamer -- Lighted street -- Good-bye to

Bernardo -- Meeting with Mr. Waag and Mr. Von Plaaten

Hallermund on the _Elena_ -- What Patagonia taught me.

A fortnight before we started there was a couple of feet of snow on

the high pampa. Beside the lake it had been blowing heavily, and

storms of sleet followed each other in dreary succession. Every

morning we saw the white cloak of winter throwing its snowy folds

lower and lower upon the mountains. The severe season of the

Cordillera and Southern Patagonia was fast shutting us in; already the

Pass to Punta Arenas was closed feet deep in snow, and our only outlet

for the south lay towards Gallegos. It had been my wish to remain as

long as possible in the neighbourhood of the Andes, but I had

overstayed the utmost limit I originally set myself, and now there was

nothing for it but to make a rush for the coast while the journey

could still be made.

On May 15 we started in heavy rain. The horses were in excellent

condition; indeed, they were too fat, for of late they had not had

enough exercise to prepare them for a very trying journey. We took

three _cargueros_ besides the horses for riding, and the party

consisted of Mr. Cattle's shepherd, George Gregory, Bernardo and

myself. At the second camp Gregory was obliged to turn back, as his

horses--a troop of colts--had wandered during the night. This was at

the River del Bote; from there Bernardo and I went on alone. We found

the aspect of the country much changed since we had crossed it three

and a half months previously. The green grass had grown yellow, the

streams and the lagoons were drying up, numbers of guanaco had

descended to the lower grounds. An Indian trader, accompanied by a few

tents of Indians, had taken up quarters near the River Califate, a

spot formerly inhabited by wildfowl only. For three days we followed

the shore of the lake, but then our way led us up on to the high

pampa, where we made our camp in a bushless _cañadon_ beside a rocky

pool. By this time the horses were beginning to lose their tricks, but

at the outset they would hardly allow themselves to be caught, and

they wandered every night. The _cañadon_ was clear of snow, but the

sky was heavy with the promise of it. We hoped most heartily that it

would give us two more days' grace before it fell.

The next day we followed the _cañadon_, which was a shallow depression

running south-west. There was no fuel to be found but the thin roots

of the dark bush known as _maté negra_. The early frosts made

travelling difficult, as it was necessary to off-saddle early, that

the horses might not be turned out sweating into the cold. We covered

sixty miles, changing horses three times, for it was quite clear that

we must push on if we hoped to escape the snow. That was one of the

most fatiguing marches we had during the whole expedition. About three

o'clock I espied some herds of tame cattle in the distance by the side

of a lagoon. These proved to belong to some tents of Indians. The men

were absent hunting and the camp was given over to the women and

decrepit dogs. An enormous _china_ sat in the opening of the largest

_toldo_; she must have weighed twenty odd stone! We learned from her

that the season had been a good one for guanaco _chicos_.

In reply to our question as to how far we might be from the nearest

white man's habitation on the next stage of our journey, the fat lady

waved her hand picturesquely and vaguely towards the eastern sky but

did not commit herself to figures.

The Indian encampment made a singular picture against a somewhat

striking background. The western sky was piling up and bulged with

snow-clouds, while the sinking sun glowed like a red-hot cannon ball

on the rim of the pampa. Against this curtain of colour were set the

brown tents of guanaco-skin. In one of these a small fire was burning

with little flames about an old meat tin in which water was being

boiled for _maté_. Around the women sat in silence--saving only the

fat spokeswoman--inert and apparently content; occasionally one would

grunt or shift the child at her breast, but otherwise one heard scarce

a sound but the whimpering of the wind from the Cordillera or the

plashing of the wildfowl in the swampy margin of the lagoon.

I need not describe at length the days which followed. In due time we

came upon a wheeltrack and sighted the first fence. This was in the

valley of the River Coyly, a good place for pasturing sheep, but

inexpressibly desolate and monotonous in aspect. For two days we held

along in this valley or on the pampa immediately above it, but,

remembering our experiences near Santa Cruz, I resolved to sleep in no

_boliche_ until we reached Gallegos.

The _cañadon_ of the Coyly was fenced at intervals, the grass eaten

close to the ground by many sheep. Thousands of wild geese clamoured

on the banks of the river. In this river valley we made our last camp

in Patagonia. There was no wood for fire, and the horses found but

little to eat, the sun set among sickly green lights, and presently

rain came on. Altogether it made a dismal good-bye to the life we had

led for so many months.

The following day, striking across the pampa for the River Gallegos,

we knew ourselves to be entering on the last stage of our wanderings.

And here we very nearly had a disastrous accident. Meeting two

Gauchos, we asked them about the condition of the ford over the

Gallegos, which they told us had been but hock-high when they passed

through with their horses. Consequently, when we arrived at the ford

half an hour later, we took our troop down into the water, but seeing

it looked uncommonly deep for the description given us by the Gauchos,

we returned to the shore, and, as there happened to be a house at no

great distance, I sent Bernardo to make inquiries. He brought back the

news that the tide was running strong and the ford quite

impracticable, but it was possible that we might be able to cross

higher up at another spot. We followed this advice and crossed in

safety, I with my precious photographs tied round my neck; but had we

tried the lower ford I am very sure I should have lost them all, which

would have been a disappointment indeed, considering the

circumstances under which they had been taken and the impossibility

of replacing them.

Once across the Gallegos we emerged upon flat ground, and here we

found a road with a line of telephone-posts running along one side of

it. Gallegos was by that time only eighteen miles ahead, but with our

tired horses that appeared a long distance. The country was absolutely

featureless, the black posts sticking up against a dull sky, the brown

earth absorbing such light as there was. A very cold wind blew across

our faces, but there was one thing that cheered us, that told us our

wanderings were over--the humming of the wind in the wires overhead.

The road dipped and rose over the long undulations, and at last, as we

topped one of the many inclines, Gallegos straggled into sight,

obviously a frontier town, all wire fences, wooden and corrugated-iron

houses with painted roofs. The emotions with which one returns and

feels the long wanderings over are not easy to describe. I rode slowly

up the main street and passed the bank--for there is a bank at

Gallegos, and the fact gave one a sensation of being very civilised

indeed. I dismounted and went into the building to inquire about the

steamer for Punta Arenas, where I hoped to pick up a homeward-bound

boat. A steamboat was to have started for Punta Arenas that same

morning, I was told, but as the captain was in gaol, her departure had

been postponed for a day or so. The delay seemed a special

dispensation for my benefit, for, had she adhered to her original

date, I must have been too late to go by her. I understood that the

captain's crime lay in having drawn up his anchor without waiting to

receive a written permit.

Luckily I had not been preceded at Gallegos by any "lord," hence I

drew the cash necessary for my passage and payments at the bank

without any trouble. Then I went on to the hotel and put up my horse,

the good little big-hearted Moro, who had carried me a hundred and

fifty miles in three days and looked fat on it. Afterwards I bought a

cigar, a very bad one, but a cigar for all that, and so proceeded down

to the beach to secure my passage. Up on the shingle were several

ships high and dry, and out in the fairway about the very smallest

steamer I have ever seen, yet a good sea-boat, as I afterwards

proved. She rejoiced in a brilliant green deck-house two storeys high,

and the funnel was almost on top of the propeller!

When it grew dark it was strange to walk through the lighted streets

and to see the faces pass and repass beneath the lamps. There was a

delightful sense of newness about it all. But perhaps the most strange

sensation was produced by a visit to the hairdresser's shop, where one

could watch in the glass the swift transformation. Afterwards it was

quite good to smoke a second execrable cigar, and to listen to the

hotel-keeper in another room telling some of his friends how he had

mistaken me for a camp-loafer owing to my patched clothes and the

ragged remnants of my boots, and had, in consequence, led me to an

outhouse, proposing to allow me to sleep there!

Best of all, perhaps, was the civilised dinner, despite the attentions

of an intoxicated itinerant dentist, who kept on reiterating the same

question, "Have you ever been to Nahuelhuapi?" the _huapi_ ending in a

wail--"w-a-a-a-pi." Bernardo had not turned up from the farm where we

had left the horses, and a gentleman connected with the Government who

was present, understanding that I wished to see him before sailing,

offered to send a file of soldiers to look for him. Presently Bernardo

arrived, and then we went away and lit our pipes for a last talk over

it all.

Next morning on the wet shingle I said good-bye to him, and there he

stood for a while as the boat shoved off and we rowed away. A wild

figure was Master Bernardo, for he had not yet had time to clothe

himself in the garments of civilisation. With his ragged blue jersey

and his big boots of _potro_ hide, surmounted by his pleasant bearded

face, he watched us through the wind and the rain, and then he turned

and walked away, passing out of sight among the sheds. He was going to

Santa Cruz by the horse-track. Good luck to him, and may we meet

again!

I went aboard, little guessing the pleasure that awaited me, for at

the gangway-head I met Mr. Waag and Mr. Von Plaaten Hallermund, of the

Boundary Commission, who were on their way down from Santa Cruz to

Punta Arenas. Mr. Waag and I had just missed each other by a couple of

hours on the pampa up country some months earlier. We were soon deep

in talk about the Cordillera, and all that had happened to the three

of us since we last met at the Hotel Phœnix in Buenos Aires. Mr.

Waag had had a successful time about Lake Puerrydon, and Mr. Von

Plaaten Hallermund at Lake San Martin. Meantime the _Elena_ got in her

anchor, and we were in the Magellan Straits by nightfall.

[Illustration: PUNTA ARENAS]

And so we reached Punta Arenas, where I was shown much hospitality by

Mr. Perkins, and where I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Fred Waldron,

in whose company, as well as that of Mr. Waag and Mr. Von Plaaten

Hallermund, I made the passage to Buenos Aires by the Pacific

Company's steamship the _Orellana_, and so home.

To turn for a moment to the personal point of view. I had landed in

Patagonia with enthusiasm, and I left it not in the least damped or

disheartened in that enthusiasm, but very much the opposite. I had

learned many lessons of life, passed through many experiences,

explored a small part of the earth's surface, and made some original

observations with regard to the zoology of the country and other

matters, but I am inclined to think that the most useful lesson to

myself was one that sank deeper and deeper into my mind, I might say

heart, with every day lived in these great solitudes--and that was the

knowledge of my own ignorance. The long solitary days in the forests,

on the pampas, and about the stormy fjords of the Cordillera brought

me face to face with Nature. There are many voices in the silence of

Nature. The stars above, the waters beneath, and the earth all spoke

in a hundred tongues, and little enough of it all could I, with my

lack of knowledge, interpret. "There are many kinds of voices in the

world, and none of them is without signification," but so long as they

spoke to me in unknown tongues how much was I the better? And there it

was I learned the useful truth that, to be a traveller of any value, a

man must also be an adequate interpreter.

[Illustration]

A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE FUTURE OF PATAGONIA

It would be possible to write a very long chapter about the future of

Patagonia. I do not, however, propose to do this, but to write what I

have to say as briefly as possible.

To begin with, Patagonia can boast of a fine climate, for, though the

winters are certainly hard, no endemic disease exists. The country is

exceptionally healthy, nor are there any poisonous reptiles to

endanger life on its far-reaching pampas. There are few parts of the

earth of which so much can be said.

A large portion of the land is eminently suited for the support of

sheep, as the enormous and prosperous sheep-farms to be found along

the east and south coasts bear witness. Cattle and horse-breeding are

also successfully carried on, and although a portion of the country is

unsuited for agricultural purposes, it is equally certain that large

expanses of ground of great fertility and rich promise are to be found

here.

The tide of pastoral life from the thriving southern farms round and

about Punta Arenas on the Straits of Magellan, and Gallegos on the

Atlantic coast, is setting strongly north and west. The crying want of

the country is capital to open up means of communication with the

interior. At present there are no railways or other settled lines for

the transport of produce, although I believe a steam-launch has lately

been placed upon the River Santa Cruz. In consequence of this lack

some farmers have to carry wool two hundred miles by bullock-cart to

the coast; a few cover even a greater distance. To send wool two

hundred miles in bullock-carts means at least three weeks of travel.

To go and come from the farm to the coast would thus take up about two

months of a farmer's time. _Peones_ are necessary to look after the

carts, and their wage is at least £5 a month and their keep. Then

carts not infrequently break down upon the rough surfaces of the

pampas and in the _cañadones_, hence more delay. Even when the port is

reached difficulties have to be surmounted, for none of them, with the

exception of Punta Arenas, are served by any steamship lines. This was

so at the time of my being in Patagonia last year (1901). Government

transports from Buenos Aires had the whole of the coast service of

Argentine Patagonia in their hands, and these could boast of only very

uncertain dates of departure and still more uncertain dates of

arrival.

All these difficulties of transit do not make for prosperity. I

understand that of late a German line has undertaken to call at some

of the ports, and if they carry out their contract it should help

events in Patagonia to get into the stride of success.

On the coast-farms, where ships could and did occasionally put in,

especially in the wool season, money was made and men began to see

fortune ahead. But far away in the interior, where a very few pioneers

have made their homes beside a lake here and there, the wide and

uninhabited pampas lie between the producer and his market. Until

railways open up the land the position of these people cannot much

improve. They are too heavily handicapped in the race.

It is almost impossible to tell what enormous numbers of sheep and

cattle Patagonia could produce for the providing of the world if

capital and enterprise would but pave the way. In the meantime the

country remains the paradise of the middleman. At present there is

little money in hand, much of the trade is carried on by barter, and

on this system there is always an evil tendency towards profits

accruing mostly to the storekeepers, who gradually become more or less

masters of the situation. Many of the small farmers are deeply in debt

to this class. A hard winter--and there are often very hard

winters--fills the pocket of the storekeeper, for they advance

provisions, without which no man can continue to live, and they, of

course, thus secure mortgages on the farms.

This same unfortunate liability is observable in other countries where

similar conditions obtain, but the opening up of the interior of

Patagonia and the introduction of capital in the hands of employers of

labour would probably lessen the pressure of hard times on the poorer

farmers.

Beyond the pampas again tower the unnumbered peaks of the Cordillera,

and among them all things, minerally speaking, are possible. Perhaps

the future of Patagonia is to be found there. In a few years the

Patagonian Andes may be as commonly known a seeking-place for fortune

as Klondyke is to-day. But concerning this part of the subject I have

nothing to say, being no prophet of El Dorados.

Although during our travels we had little time to spare for

prospecting, or searching for the mineral wealth which may lie hidden

in the Cordillera, yet there was one obvious source of riches that was

always before our eyes in those regions.

The coast-towns of Patagonia are supplied with wood by sea from the

woodlands of Tierra del Fuego, and this while many square miles about

the bases of the Andes are covered with dense forests of magnificent

growth. Here are to be found beech, cypress and redwood, not to speak

of other trees, but the absolute absence of any means of conveying

logs to the coast has so far left this store of wealth untouched.

Until better means of transport can be developed, there are certainly

one or two rivers which might be made use of in this connection.

I can only insist upon the fact that Patagonia is a great though at

present undeveloped land; that it cries aloud to railway enterprise to

become its salvation. Nevertheless, it is even now a good country for

the man ready and able to work. A capable man will make £6 a month and

his keep, but he must know the work required of him; a considerable

time has to be spent in learning the skilled labour of camp life, and

very hard labour that sometimes is. An emigrant does not consequently

find it so easy to get employment. But, given vigorous health, an

aptitude for hard work, and a small sum in hand to keep him going

until he is broken in to the necessities of the life, and I know of

few countries more favourable to the _unmarried_ working man.

There is something further which I should like to suggest to intending

emigrants of my own nation.

The greatest of British exports is, one might contend, Britishers.

The attitude of the young Britisher abroad towards the rest of the

world in general is at once a source of great national strength and of

serious national weakness.

First, as we know, he is a poor linguist, who prefers to go on

speaking his own language, and, when not understood, attempting to

enforce comprehension by the very simple expedient of shouting louder.

The result of this uncompromising attitude, backed by a good national

financial status, is that as the mountain will not go to Mahomet,

Mahomet must needs come to the mountain, and the foreign Mahomet does

come, wrestling his way through difficulties of pronunciation. By his

attitude in this matter--an attitude dictated partly by a too common

lack of the linguistic faculty and partly by a certain rooted

conviction that a man who cannot speak English is a man of "lesser

breed"--the Britisher has to a certain extent forced English upon a

very unwilling world.

But whether this question of the one-language system is a loss or a

gain to the country, it is very certain that there is another

idiosyncrasy of the Englishman abroad which is an undoubted loss.

Every country has its own ways and methods, not only peculiar to its

inhabitants but adapted to their special needs. And here the brusque

unadaptability of the Englishman becomes pitifully apparent.

He loses immensely by it. He will ride on his English saddle because

he has been used to ride on it at home; he will wear his pigskin

leggings for precisely the same reason.

You cannot teach him that he who walks in a noontide sun in latitudes

near the equator is sometimes apt to contract a fever. Of course I

refer chiefly to the "new chum," but we have an unfortunate gift of

remaining new chums for an indefinite period.

Our young blood is very sure of himself, which is a first-rate

national trait, and one to which as a nation we, no doubt, owe much.

But it has its drawbacks. Thus, although he is physically excellent

beyond his fellows, his death-rate is usually heavier, which in the

nature of things it ought not to be.

But in cases where adhesion to the methods of the country to which he

has migrated touches not himself but his goods and his work he

needlessly--indeed, almost mischievously--handicaps himself. He takes

pride in occupying a position of more or less splendid isolation.

The Britisher lacks adaptability. He lacks suavity. He often lacks

common politeness. In fact, he is a good fellow when you know him, but

you have got to know him first. An excellent reputation to possess,

perhaps, apart from business, and when your position is assured. But

in foreign countries, and in the case of dealing with strangers of

other nations, who are very apt to like or dislike at first sight, its

results are disastrous, for they rarely reconsider their first

opinion.

The Continental races, on the other hand, aim at merging their

individuality in that of their temporary hosts. Actuated by a sense of

politeness or of self-interest--I do not know which--these peoples do

not thrust forward the fact that they are aliens, but rather try to

foster the idea that the land of their adoption is their own. But when

the young Englishman comes along, his manner placards him with his

nationality. He seems to say, "You fellows, I've got to live here,

Fate orders it. But I am not of you. Apart from business, leave me

alone."

He and his compatriots are sufficient unto themselves. And not

infrequently also, though strangers in a strange land, they are a law

unto themselves. Now this is all very well in its way, and we would

not, I suppose, have it otherwise; yet, if the English youth abroad

would modify their attitude towards the works of the alien, even

while, if they so choose, preserving it towards the alien himself,

they would rise to greater heights of success than they at present

touch.

The fact is that the alien thinks the Englishman is a fool of a very

notable kind, and in many cases he is right.

It is not in the excellence of their goods, or even in the cheapness

of their tariff, that the Germans are forging ahead of us in trade. It

is in their attitude towards those with whom they deal. They make an

art of selling a yard of red flannel to an elderly negress. The

negress feels the compliment, rather despises the complimenter, but

likes it on the whole--and comes again.[32]

While the German studies the people who are to buy his goods in a

spirit of subtlety, the Englishman makes up his mind without

considering anybody save himself and his own ideas. In the days before

competition assumed its present proportions this was all very well,

perhaps; or at least it was not the commercial suicide that it

certainly is to-day.

From the standpoint of the employer, the Englishman does not know his

work. He has no money. He must, therefore, earn something. He expects

to be allowed to earn and learn at one and the same time, which is an

absurd notion.

The cause of all this is the same as that which sends out first-rate

goods but to the wrong market.

The fact is, we do not study our markets seriously either for

mercantile or for human exports.

If the South Sea Islanders want red cloth we send them yellow, and if

in Patagonia there is an opening for men who are decent practical

blacksmiths, we send them a stream of youths who have never fullered a

shoe, but who are well up in the rudiments of Greek.

FOOTNOTE:

[32] I have watched with considerable interest the methods adopted by

the Germans as opposed to those of the young man of our own race. I

remember an instance of a German who set up as a chemist in a town out

Central America way, and whose chief source of income came from the

sale of drugs to rather impressionable negroes. In his place the

Englishman would have laid in decent English drugs, would have sat

behind his counter, and would have dispensed in stolid fashion to the

limit of the abilities with which he was blessed. Not so our German

friend. His drugs were good, but not supremely so; his prices were

cost prices, with a mere shaving of profit.

But his method was excellent.

He made a character-study of each of his customers. He sold a fine

tonic, coloured red and reported invincible. He put the title of Dr.

before his name, and advertised free consultations, provided the

patients bought their medicines at his store. He throve.

APPENDIX A

The expedition sent out to Patagonia under my charge by Mr. C. Arthur

Pearson owed its origin to the discoveries made in that country by Dr.

F. P. Moreno of certain remains of an animal, the Pampean Mylodon or

Giant Ground Sloth, long believed to belong to the category of extinct

prehistoric mammals. The marvellous state of preservation of the

remains found at Last Hope Inlet seemed to give some ground for the

supposition that the animal might possibly have survived to a recent

period. Professor Ray Lankester, the Director of the British Museum of

Natural History, in commenting upon the chance of the Mylodon being

still alive in some remote and unknown region of Patagonia, said: "It

is quite possible--I don't want to say more than that--that he still

exists in some of the mountainous regions of Patagonia." These words

from such an authority carried weight, and the question assumed an

importance that made it worth all practicable examination. I have in

the following pages put the whole case as clearly and as definitely as

lies in my power.

To begin with, I give the story of Dr. Moreno's discovery as he

himself told it to the Zoological Society, and the description of the

remains by Dr. A. Smith Woodward, LL.D., F.R.S.

I. ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY. By Dr. MORENO.

In November 1897 I paid a visit to that part of the Patagonian

territory which adjoins the Cordillera of the Andes, between the 51st

and 52nd degrees of South latitude, where certain surveyors, under my

direction, were carrying out the preliminary studies connected with

the boundary-line between Chile and Argentina; and in the course of

this expedition I reached Consuelo Cove, which lies in Last Hope

Inlet. In that spot, hung up on a tree, I found a piece of a dried

skin, which attracted my attention most strangely, as I could not

determine to what class of Mammalia it could belong, more especially

because of the resemblance of the small incrusted bones it contained

to those of the Pampean _Mylodon_. On inquiring whence it came, I was

informed that it was only a fragment of a large piece of skin which

had been discovered two years before, by some Argentine officers, in a

cavern which existed in the neighbouring heights. Immediately on

receiving this news, I hastened to the spot, guided by a sailor who

had been present when the original discovery had been made. As, at

that moment, I had no means of making more than a few hurried

excavations, which gave no further traces of the discovery, I left

orders that the search should be continued after my departure; but

this once more also failed to give any ultimate results. Nothing could

be found but modern remains of small rodents, and these chiefly on or

near the surface of the ground. From the most careful inquiries which

I set on foot, it appeared that, when the first discovery was made, no

bones were found, the skin being half buried in the dust which had

accumulated from the gradual falling away of the roof of the cavern,

composed of Tertiary Conglomerate. It was only in the broad entrance

to the cavern that were found a few human bones, borne thence to the

shore of the Cove and afterwards broken up.

As already stated, the skin here presented to you formed but a small

part of a larger one. One small piece had been carried off by Dr. Otto

Nordenskjöld, and others by officers of the Chilian Navy, who later on

had visited the spot. The inhabitants of the locality looked upon it

as an interesting curiosity, some of them believing that it was the

hide of a cow incrusted with pebbles, and others asserting that it was

the skin of a large Seal belonging to a hitherto unknown species.

In Consuelo Cove, I embarked on board a small Argentine transport,

which had been placed at my disposal to carry out the study of the

western coast as far as Port Montt, in lat. 42°. At this latter place

I left the steamer, which then proceeded to make a series of surveys.

These lasted until her return to La Plata, at the latter end of July

1898, when she brought back to me the fragment of skin in question.

This is an accurate and true version of the discovery of this skin,

which gave rise to the publication of Señor Ameghino's small

pamphlet,[33] in which he gave an account of the discovery of a living

representative of the "Gravigrades" of Argentina, distinguishing it by

the name of "_Neomylodon listai_".

I have an idea that Señor Ameghino never saw the skin itself, but only

some of the small incrusted bones, of which he had obtained

possession. The vague form in which he draws up his account compels me

to believe this suspicion to be true.

My opinion is that this skin belongs to a genuine Pampean _Mylodon_,

preserved under peculiar circumstances resembling those to which we

owe the skin and feathers of the Moa. I have always maintained that

the Pampean Edentates, now extinct, disappeared only in the epoch

which is called the "historical epoch" of our America. In the province

of Buenos Aires, buried chiefly in the humus, I have found remains of

_Panochthus_, and others of the same _Mylodon_ from the seashore, all

of which present the same characteristic marks of preservation as the

remains of human beings discovered in the same spot. In this identical

layer of the sea-shore, close to the bones I have also found stones

polished by the hand of man, and flints cut like those found in the

Pampean formation. In 1884, in a cavern near to the Rio de los Patos,

in the Cordillera, I discovered some paintings in red ochre, one of

which, in my opinion, resembles the _Glyptodon_ on account of the

shape of the carapace.

Ancient chroniclers inform us that the indigenous inhabitants recorded

the existence of a strange, ugly, huge hairy animal which had its

abode in the Cordillera to the south of lat. 37°. The Tehuelches and

the Gennakens have mentioned similar animals to me, of whose existence

their ancestors had transmitted the remembrance; and in the

neighbourhood of the Rio Negro, the aged cacique Sinchel, in 1875,

pointed out to me a cave, the supposed lair of one of these monsters,

called "Ellengassen"; but I must add that none of the many Indians

with whom I have conversed in Patagonia have ever referred to the

actual existence of animals to which we can attribute the skin in

question, nor even of any which answer to the suppositions of Señor

Ameghino according to Señor Lista. It is but rarely that a few Otters

(_Lutra_) are found in the lakes and rivers of the Andes, as in the

neighbourhood of Lake Argentino, in the "Sierra de las Viscachas," and

in the regions which I believe Señor Lista visited, there are only a

few scarce Chinchillas (_Lagidium_), which have a colouring more dark

greyish than those found to the north, and are in every case separated

from these by a large extent of country.

The Pampean Edentata have in former days certainly existed as far

south as the extreme limit of Patagonia. In 1874, in the bay of Santa

Cruz, I met with the remains of a _pelvis_ of one of these animals in

Pleistocene deposits, and also remains of the mammals which are found

in the same formation, such as the _Macrauchenia_ and _Auchenia_. It

would not be astonishing that the skin of one of these should have

been preserved so long, because of the favourable conditions of the

spot in which it was found.

The state of preservation of this piece of skin, at first sight, makes

it difficult for one to believe it to be of great antiquity; but this

is by no means an impossibility, if we consider the conditions of the

cave in which it was found, the atmosphere of which is not so damp as

one might at first imagine it to be, although it is situated in the

woody regions near to the glaciers and lakes. It is well to mention

that in 1877, under similar conditions, and in a much smaller cave,

scarcely five metres from the waters of Lake Argentino, situated sixty

miles more to the north, I discovered a mummified human body painted

red, with the head still covered in part with its short hair

wonderfully preserved, and wrapped up in a covering made of the skin

of a Rhea, and holding in its arms a large feather of the Condor, also

painted red; this was all covered up with a layer of grass and dust

fallen from the roof of the cave. In another cave in the neighbourhood

I discovered a large trunk of a tree, painted with figures in red,

black, and yellow. The sides of the rock close to the entrance of the

cave were covered with figures, some representing the human hand,

others combinations of curved, straight, and circular lines, painted

white, red, yellow, and green. Now, this mummy, which is preserved in

the Museum of La Plata, does not belong to any of the actual tribes of

Patagonia. Its skull resembles rather one of those more ancient races

found in the cemeteries in the valley of the Rio Negro--a most

interesting fact, since they belong to types which have completely

disappeared from the Patagonian regions, and it is well known that the

actual Tehuelches may be considered to have been the last indigenous

races which reached the territory of Patagonia. Many a time the

Tehuelches have spoken to me of these caves as abodes of the evil

"spirits," and of the enigmatical painted figures they contained: some

attributed the latter to these same "spirits," others to men of other

races, of whom they have no recollection. In another cave, four

hundred miles farther to the north, in 1880, I discovered other human

bodies, more or less mummified and in good preservation, but of a

different type, and beside them some painted poles which served to

hold up their small tents, the use of which had already disappeared

more than three centuries ago; together with the upper part of the

skull of a child perfectly scooped out like a cup. And yet the

historical Tehuelches, the same as all the indigenous races in the

southern extremity of South America, hold their dead in great respect,

and never use such drinking-vessels.

These proofs of the favourable conditions of the climate and of the

lands near to the Cordillera, which are revealed to us by the

preservation of objects undoubtedly dating from very remote epochs,

strengthen my opinion that this skin of a huge mammal, which has long

since disappeared, may well have been preserved till the present time.

I may add that a further careful search is now being made in the earth

forming the floor of the cave, and I hope in due time to have the

honour of communicating the results to this Society.

II. DESCRIPTION AND COMPARISON OF THE SPECIMEN.

By A. SMITH WOODWARD.

(a) _Description._

The problematical piece of skin discovered by Dr. Moreno measures

approximately 0.48 m. in the direction of the main lie of the hair,

while its maximum extent at right angles to this direction is about

0.55 m. The fragment, however, is very irregular in shape; and it has

become much distorted in the process of drying, so that the anterior

portion, which is directed upwards in the drawing, is bent outwards at

a considerable angle to the main part of the specimen which will be

claimed to represent the back. The skin, as observed in transverse

section, presents a dried, felt-like aspect; but there is a frequent

ruddiness, suggestive of blood-stains, while the margin exhibits

distinct indications of freshly dried once-fluid matter, which Dr.

Vaughan Harley has kindly examined and pronounced to be serum. Its

outer face is completely covered with hair, except in the region

marked C and above B, where this covering seems to have been

comparatively fine and may have been accidentally removed. The inner

face of the skin is only intact in a few places, the specimen having

contracted and perhaps been somewhat abraded, so that a remarkable

armour of small bony tubercles, irregularly arranged and of variable

size, is exposed over the greater part of it. At one point there is an

irregular rounded hole about 0.02 m. in diameter, which might possibly

have been caused by a bullet or a dagger, but in any case was probably

pierced when the skin was still fresh. Owing to its direction, this

hole is partly obscured by the overhanging hair.

The skin in its dried state varies in thickness in different parts.

The average thickness of the flattened portion, which must be referred

to the back, is shown by the cleanly-cut right margin of the specimen

to be 0.01 m. This is slightly increased towards the posterior (lower)

end of the border, while above it the thickness becomes 0.015 m. The

latter thickness also seems to be attained in the much-shrivelled

corner marked C--a circumstance suggesting bilateral symmetry between

at least part of the two anterior outer angles of the specimen. The

thinnest portion preserved is the border above B; and the skin must

also have been comparatively thin in the region of the accidental

notch to the left, considerably below C.

The portion of skin above B is interesting not only from its relative

thinness, but also from the occurrence of an apparently natural

rounded concavity in the margin. This excavation, which measures 0.05

m. along the curve, is marked by the remains of a thin flexible flap,

which is sharply bent outwards, and is covered with short hairs on

its outer face. It is especially suggestive of the base of an

ear-conch; and if this appearance be not deceptive, it is worthy of

note that the dried skin hereabouts and in the region which would have

to be interpreted as cheek (C) is much more wrinkled than elsewhere.

[Illustration: SKIN OF GRYPOTHERIUM, OUTER VIEW. ¼ NAT. SIZE.]

[Illustration: SKIN OF GRYPOTHERIUM, INNER VIEW. ¼ NAT. SIZE.]

As already mentioned, the outer aspect of the skin is completely

covered with hair, which is very dense everywhere except on the left

anterior corner. Here it seems to have been removed by abrasion. A

small patch of hair has also clearly been pulled out near the gap in

the left border of the specimen; and close to the middle (where marked

D) there is a small hairless depression which may perhaps be

interpreted as a wound inflicted and healed during life. The hair is

only of one kind, without any trace of under-fur, and it is still

very firmly implanted in the skin, without signs of decay. Its

arrangement seems to be quite regular, there being no tendency towards

its segregation into small groups or bundles. It is of a uniform dirty

yellowish or light yellowish-brown colour, and, making due allowance

for slight ruffling and distortion of the specimen, it may be

described as all lying in one direction, vertically in the photograph,

except at the two upturned anterior corners of the specimen, where

there is an inclination from the right and left respectively towards

the centre. The longest hairs, which usually measure from 0.05 m. to

0.065 m. in length, are observed in the half of the specimen in front

of (above) the letter D. Those in the middle of the extreme anterior

(upper) border measure from 0.03 m. to 0.05 m. in length, those at

the hinder (lower) border about the same; while some of the

comparatively small and delicate hairs on the supposed cheek are not

longer than 0.01 m. The hairs are stiff, straight, or only very

slightly wavy, and all are remarkably tough. Examined under the

microscope, their cuticle is observed to be quite smooth, while the

much-elongated cells of the cortex are readily distinguishable. Mr. R.

H. Burne has kindly made some transverse sections, which prove the

hairs to be almost or quite cylindrical, and none of the specimens

examined present any trace of a medulla.

The dermal ossicles are very irregular in arrangement, but are to be

observed in every part of the specimen, even in the comparatively thin

region near the supposed ear. They form everywhere a very compact

armour, and some of them are quite closely pressed together; rarely,

indeed, there is a shallow groove crossing a specimen, possibly

indicating two components which were originally separate. As shown by

every part of the cut margin, and especially well in a small section

prepared by Prof. Charles Stewart, they are all confined to the lower

half of the dermis, never encroaching upon the upper portion in which

the hair is implanted. It is also to be observed that, where the inner

surface of the skin is intact, the ossicles are completely embedded

and only faintly visible through the dry tissue. The exposure of a

considerable number of them, as already mentioned, is due to the

rupture and partial abrasion of this surface. No tendency to

arrangement in parallel lines or bands can be detected; and large and

small ossicles seem to be indiscriminately mingled, although of course

allowance must be made, in examining sections and the abraded inner

view of the skin, for differences in the plane of adjoining sections

and varying degrees of exposure by the removal of the soft tissue. The

largest ossicles are oblong in shape when viewed from within, and

measure approximately 0.015 m. by 0.010 m.; but the majority are much

smaller than these. They are very variable and irregular in form; but

their inner face is generally convex, sometimes almost pyramidal,

while the outer face of the few which have been examined is slightly

convex, more or less flattened, without any trace of regular markings.

In microscopical structure the dermal ossicles are of much interest,

and I have examined both horizontal and vertical sections, one of the

former kindly prepared by Prof. Charles Stewart. The tissue is

traversed in all directions by a dense mass of interlacing bundles of

connective-tissue fibres, which exhibit an entirely irregular

disposition, except quite at the periphery of the ossicle. Here they

are less dense, and are arranged in such a manner as to form at least

one darkened zone concentric with the margin in the comparatively

translucent border. Occasionally, but not at all points, the fibres in

this peripheral area may be observed to radiate regularly outwards.

Numerous small vascular canals, frequently branching, are cut in

various directions; and the bony tissue, which is developed in every

part of the ossicle, exhibits abundant lacunæ. Nearly everywhere,

except in the narrow peripheral area just mentioned, it is easy to

recognise the bony laminæ arranged in Haversian systems round the

canals; and most of the lacunæ between these laminæ are excessively

elongated, with very numerous branching canaliculi, which extend at

right angles to their longer axis. Near the margin of the ossicle,

especially in its more translucent parts, the bone-lacunæ are less

elongated, more irregular in shape, and apparently not arranged in any

definite order. There is no clear evidence of bony laminæ concentric

with the outer margin, though appearances are sometimes suggestive of

this arrangement. A vertical section of an ossicle presents exactly

the same features as the horizontal section now described. It is thus

evident that the vascular canals with their Haversian systems of bone

have no definite direction, but are disposed in an entirely irregular

manner.

Taking into consideration all characters, and making comparisons with

the aid of my friend Mr. W. E. de Winton, I am inclined to regard the

fragmentary specimen as the skin of the neck and shoulder-region with

part of the left cheek. The apparent bilateral symmetry between at

least part of the thickened anterior outer angles of the specimen has

already been noted; and if this observation be well founded, the

middle line of the back extends vertically down the middle of the

photograph, p. 306. If the rounded notch above B be the base of the

external ear, as seems probable, the thick wrinkled skin (C) with fine

short hair still further to the left must be the cheek. The ear and

cheek on the right side have been removed; but at the base of the

outwardly-turned angle on this side of the specimen there are the very

long hairs which occupy a similar position on the left. It thus seems

possible to estimate the transverse measurement between the ears as

from 0.25 m. to 0.30 m., which corresponds with a tentative estimate

of the same distance in _Mylodon robustus_ based on a skull in the

British Museum.

(b) _Comparisons and General Conclusions._

The skin now described differs from that of all known terrestrial

Mammalia, except certain Edentata, in the presence of a bony dermal

armour. There can therefore be little doubt that the specimen has been

rightly referred to a member of this typically South American order.

Even among the Edentates, however, the fragment now under

consideration is unique in one respect; for all the ossicles are

buried deeply in the lower half of the thickened dermis and the hairs

are implanted in every part of its upper half, whereas all the forms

of bony armour hitherto described in this order reach the outer

surface of the dermis and are merely invested with horny epidermis.

This is the case, as is well known, in the common existing Armadillos,

in which the hair is only implanted in the dermis between the separate

parts of the armour. Even in the unique and remarkable skin of an

Armadillo from Northern Brazil, described by Milne-Edwards under the

name of _Scleropleura bruneti_[34] the bony plates and tubercles are

still covered only by epidermis, although most of them are reduced to

small nodules and might well have sunk more deeply into the abnormally

hairy skin. There is also reason to believe that in the gigantic

extinct Armadillos of the family Glyptodontidæ the same arrangement of

dermal structures prevailed; for one specimen of _Panochthus

tuberculatus_ obtained by Dr. Moreno for the La Plata Museum actually

shows the dried horny epidermis in direct contact with the underlying

bone, and seems to prove that the numerous perforations in the

Glyptodont dermal armour were not for the implantation of hairs (as

once supposed), but for the passage of blood-vessels to the base of

the epidermal layer. Similarly, among the extinct Ground-Sloths of the

family Mylodontidæ dermal ossicles have been found with the remains of

_Cœlodon_[35] and various forms (perhaps different subgenera) of

_Mylodon_; but the only examples of this armour yet definitely

described[36] exhibit a conspicuously sculptured outer flattened face,

and it thus seems clear that Burmeister was correct in describing them

as originally reaching the upper surface of the dermis and only

covered externally by a thickened epidermis. It is, however, to be

noted that Burmeister himself actually observed armour of this kind

covering only the lumbar region of the trunk. He believed that the

other parts of the animal were similarly armoured, because he had

found "the same ossicles" on the digits of the manus, where they were

"generally smaller and more spherical"; but he unfortunately omits to

make any explicit statement as to the presence or absence of the

characteristic external ornamentation on the latter.

The omission just mentioned is especially unfortunate, because on

careful comparison it is evident that the irregular disposition of the

small ossicles in the piece of skin now under consideration is most

closely paralleled in the dermal armour of the extinct _Mylodon_, as

already observed by Drs. Moreno and Ameghino. There is obviously no

approach in this specimen to the definite and symmetrical arrangement

of the armour such as is exhibited both by the existing Armadillos

and the extinct Glyptodonts. There are, then, two possibilities.

Either the dermal armour of _Mylodon_ varied in different parts of the

body, being sculptured and covered only by epidermis in the lumbar

region, while less developed, not sculptured but completely buried in

the dermis in the comparatively flexible neck and shoulder region--in

which case Dr. Moreno may be correct in referring the problematical

specimen to _Mylodon_; or the dermal ossicles of this extinct genus

may have been uniform throughout, only differing in size and

sparseness or compactness--in which case Dr. Ameghino is justified in

proposing to recognise a distinct genus, _Neomylodon_.

To decide between these two possibilities, it is necessary to wait for

additional information concerning the anterior dorsal armour of

_Mylodon_ as precise as that published by Burmeister in reference to

the lumbar shield. Meanwhile it must suffice to compare the

microscopical structure of the ossicles from the new skin with that of

the small sculptured tubercles of undoubted _Mylodon_. It must be

remembered that the specimen has been buried in the Pampa Formation

for a long period, and that the oxides of iron and manganese have

infiltrated the margin of the bone, rendering the structure of its

outer border more conspicuous than that of its central portion. It

must also be noted that some of the manganese has assumed its familiar

"dendritic" aspect, in this respect presenting appearances not due to

original structure. The calcified interlacing fibres of connective

tissue are as abundant here as in the ossicle of the so-called

_Neomylodon_; but in a very wide peripheral area they exhibit a marked

radial disposition, nearly everywhere extending in bundles at right

angles to the border. Rather large vascular canals, infiltrated with

the oxides of iron and manganese, are observed in places, often

bifurcated and usually bordered by a transparent zone free from the

connective-tissue fibres. Well-developed bone-lacunæ are very

abundant, many exhibiting short branching canaliculi, and most of the

others very irregular in shape, evidently furnished with canaliculi

which cannot be seen from lack of infiltration. The lacunæ are never

much elongated, and are not arranged in distinctly differentiated

Haversian systems in any part of the section; while the only regular

disposition of the bony laminæ is traceable near the circumference,

where the lacunæ are frequently arranged or clustered in parallel

zones concentric with the border. A vertical section of one of the

same specimens shows the connective-tissue fibres radiating outwards

towards the lateral margins, but not directly towards the upper

sculptured face. There are no bony laminæ clearly parallel with the

latter face, and at least one vascular canal in transverse section

seems to be the centre of a Haversian system.

The histological structure of the ossicles in the skin now under

consideration thus resembles that of the sculptured tubercles of

_Mylodon_ in all essential features, but differs in two noteworthy

respects. In the ossicles of the so-called _Neomylodon_, as already

described, the fibres of connective tissue do not exhibit much

definite radiation towards the lateral margin; while the bony tissue

at most points is disposed in definite Haversian systems. There is

thus enough discrepancy to justify the suspicion that the new and the

old specimens do not belong to the same animal. In fact, so far as the

differentiation of the dermal bone is concerned, the so-called

_Neomylodon_ is precisely intermediate between _Mylodon_ and the

existing Armadillo (_Dasypus_); sections of the scutes of the latter

animal, both in the Royal College of Surgeons and in the British

Museum, showing that in this genus nearly the whole of the osseous

tissue is arranged in Haversian systems, although abundant interlacing

connective-tissue fibres are still entangled in it, at least near the

border.

If the characteristic dermal armature does not suffice for the

definite expression of an opinion as to the precise affinities of the

specimen, a still less satisfactory result can be expected from a

comparison of the hair. For, in the first place, no hair has hitherto

been discovered in association with the skeleton of any extinct

Ground-Sloth; while, secondly, the hairy covering of a mammal is

perhaps that part of its organisation most readily adapted to the

immediate circumstances of its life. So far as their endo-skeleton is

concerned, the extinct Mylodonts and their allies are precisely

intermediate between the existing Sloths and Anteaters; they combine

"the head and dentition of the former with the structure of the

vertebral column, limbs, and tail of the latter."[37] It might

therefore be supposed that the hair of this extinct group would

exhibit some of the peculiarities of that in one or other of its

nearest surviving relatives. The epidermal covering of the piece of

skin now described, however, entirely lacks the under-fur which is so

thick in the Sloths; while the structure of each individual hair, with

its smooth cuticle and lack of a medulla, is strikingly different from

that observed both in the Sloths and Anteaters, and identical with

that of the hair in the surviving Armadillos. The large hair in the

Sloths and _Tamandua_ exhibits a conspicuously scaly cuticle; while

that of _Myrmecophaga_ is remarkable for its very large medulla. All

these animals now live in the tropics, either in forests or swamps,

whereas the Patagonian animal must have existed under circumstances

much like those under which the Armadillos still survive. Hence the

characters of the hair of the so-called _Neomylodon_ may be of no

great importance in determining the affinities of the animal, but may

represent a special adaptation to its immediate environment.

Finally, there is the question of the antiquity of the problematical

skin. On two occasions I have examined the mummified remains of the

extinct Mammoth and Rhinoceros from Siberia in the Imperial Academy of

Sciences at St. Petersburg; I have also carefully studied the remains

of the neck and legs of the Moa from a cavern in New Zealand, now in

the British Museum. Compared with these shrivelled and dried

specimens, the piece of skin from Patagonia has a remarkably fresh and

modern aspect; and I should unhesitatingly express the opinion that it

belonged to an animal killed shortly before Dr. Moreno recognised its

interest, had he not been able to give so circumstantial an account of

its discovery and strengthened his point of view by recording the

occurrence of a human mummy of an extinct race in another cavern in

the same district. The presence of an abundant covering of dried serum

on one cut border of the skin is alone suggestive of grave doubts as

to the antiquity of the specimen; but Dr. Vaughan Harley tells me that

similar dried serum has been observed several times among the remains

of the Egyptian mummies, and there seems thus to be no limit to the

length of time for which it can be preserved, provided it is removed

from all contact with moisture. I may add that I have searched in vain

in the writings of Ramon Lista (so far as they are represented in the

Library of the Royal Geographical Society) for some reference to the

statement which the late traveller made verbally to Dr. Ameghino; and

as the piece of skin now described certainly represents an animal

almost gigantic in size compared with the Old-World Pangolin, I fear

it cannot be claimed to belong to Lista's problematical quadruped,

whatever that may prove to be.

The final result of these brief considerations is therefore rather

disappointing. There are difficulties in either of the two possible

hypotheses. We have a piece of skin quite large enough to have

belonged to the extinct _Mylodon_; but unfortunately it cannot be

directly compared with the dermal armour of that genus, because it

seems to belong to the neck-region, while the only dermal tubercles of

a Mylodont hitherto definitely made known are referable to the lumbar

region. If it does belong to _Mylodon_, as Dr. Moreno maintains, it

implies either that this genus survived in Patagonia to a

comparatively recent date, or that the circumstances of preservation

were unique in the cavern where the specimen was discovered. On the

other hand, if it belongs to a distinct and existing genus, as Dr.

Ameghino maintains--and as most of the characters of the specimen

itself would at first sight suggest--it is indeed strange that so

large and remarkable a quadruped should have hitherto escaped

detection in a country which has been so frequently visited by

scientific explorers.

* * * * *

[P.S.--At the reading of this paper Prof. Ray Lankester remarked that

he should regard the characters of the hair as specially important,

and would not be surprised if the problematical piece of skin proved

to belong to an unknown type of Armadillo. This possibility had

occurred to me, but I had hesitated to mention it on account of the

considerable discrepancy observable between the arrangement of the

bony armour in _Neomylodon_ and that in the known Glyptodonts and the

unique Brazilian Armadillo (_Scleropleura_), which happen to exhibit

an incompletely developed (incipient or vestigial) shield. In each of

the latter cases, the armour is not subdivided into a compact mass of

irregular ossicles, but consists of well-separated elements which

could only become continuous by the addition of a considerable extent

of bone round their margins, or by the special development of smaller

intervening ossicles.

Since the paper was read, I have had the privilege of studying Dr.

Einar Lönnberg's valuable description of the pieces of the

problematical skin mentioned by Dr. Moreno as having been taken to

Upsala by Dr. Otto Nordenskjöld.[38] It appears that with the skin was

found the epidermal sheath of a large unknown claw, which may have

belonged to the same animal. This specimen proves to be different from

that of any existing Sloth, Anteater, or Armadillo, and is considered

by Dr. Lönnberg to belong probably to the hind foot of a Mylodont,

which did not walk on the exterior, lateral surfaces of the toes to

the same extent as _Mylodon_. In a section of the skin provisionally

ascribed to the leg, he observes that the small ossicles are very

irregular, and shows two instances in which two are placed one above

the other. In microscopical sections of the ossicles, however, he does

not find the distinct Haversian systems of bone so conspicuous in my

slides; and hence he fails to remark the differences between the

structure of the armour in _Neomylodon_ and _Mylodon_, which seem to

me to be particularly noteworthy. His so-called "pigment cellules" in

_Mylodon_ are the dendritic infiltrations of oxide of manganese and

stains of oxide of iron, to which I have made special reference. His

observations as to the absence of a medulla in the hair confirm my

own; but I have not seen any evidence of the suspected loss or

disintegration of the hair-cuticle. Finally, Dr. Lönnberg has boiled a

piece of the skin, thereby extracting glue, "which proves that the

collagen and gelatinous substances are perfectly preserved." The

latter observation confirms the evidence of the serum recorded above,

and indicates that if the specimen is "of any considerable age, it

must have been very well protected against moisture and bacteria."--A.

S. W.]

III. DESCRIPTION OF ADDITIONAL DISCOVERIES.

By A. SMITH WOODWARD.[39]

Last February, when presenting to the Zoological Society an account of

the skin of a Ground-Sloth discovered in a cavern in Southern

Patagonia, Dr. Moreno mentioned that further excavations were being

made in the hope of finding other remains of the same animal. The task

referred to was undertaken by Dr. Rudolph Hauthal, geologist of the La

Plata Museum, who met with complete success.[40] He not only found

another piece of skin, but also various broken bones of more than one

individual of a large species of Ground-Sloth in a remarkably fresh

state of preservation. Moreover, he discovered teeth of an extinct

horse and portions of limb-bones of a large feline carnivore, in

association with these remains; he likewise met with traces of fire,

which clearly occurred in the same deposits as the so-called

_Neomylodon_. All these remains were found beneath the dry earth on

the floor of an enormous chamber which seemed to have been

artificially enclosed by rude walls. In one spot they were scattered

through a thick deposit of excrement of some gigantic herbivore,

evidently the Ground-Sloth itself; in another spot they were

associated with an extensive accumulation of cut hay. Dr. Hauthal and

his colleagues, indeed, concluded that the cavern was an old corral in

which the Ground-Sloths had been kept and fed by man.

As the result of these explorations, Dr. Moreno has now the

gratification of exhibiting to the Society complete proof that the

piece of skin described on the former occasion belongs to a genuine

Pampean Ground-Sloth, not _Mylodon_ itself, but a very closely related

genus _Grypotherium_, of which skulls are already known from Pampean

deposits in the Province of Buenos Aires.[41] The collection which we

now have the privilege of examining distinctly supports his contention

that the large quadruped in question belongs to an extinct fauna,

though contemporary with man. The discovery is thus unique in the

history of palæontology, on account of the remarkably fresh state of

preservation of all the remains. Some of the new specimens exhibit no

indication whatever of having been buried. Many of the bones retain

their original whitish colour, apparently without any loss of

gelatine; while both these and other bones, which have evidently been

entombed in brownish dust, bear numerous remnants not only of the

dried periosteum, but also of shrivelled muscles, ligaments, and

cartilages. Very few of the bones are fossilised, in the ordinary

sense of the term.

An admirable brief description of this collection has already been

published (_op. cit._) by Dr. Roth, who was the first to recognise the

generic identity of _Neomylodon_ with _Grypotherium_. Some of the

specimens, however, are worthy of a more detailed examination; and Dr.

Moreno has kindly entrusted them to me for study in connection with

the collections in the British Museum and the Royal College of

Surgeons. The following notes, supplementing Dr. Roth's original

memoir, are the result of this further investigation.

1. REMAINS OF _GRYPOTHRIUM LISTAI_.

_Number of Individuals._

Among the fragmentary bones of the Ground-Sloth, it is easy to

recognise evidence of three individuals, which do not differ much in

size. There are three distinct examples of the occiput and fragments

of the dentigerous portion of three mandibles. It is also noteworthy

that the three malar bones preserved are all different in shape, while

three corresponding fragments of the acromial process of the scapula

differ in size. One portion of maxilla seems to represent a fourth

individual, being probably too small for either of the skulls to which

the occiputs belong. Finally, as Dr. Roth has pointed out, one shaft

of a humerus, which appears to be the bone of an adult, belongs to a

much smaller animal than is indicated by any other specimen in the

collection.

Remains of three individuals are thus recognisable with certainty; two

others can probably be distinguished; while some of the fragments may

even belong to a sixth specimen. It must also be noted that other

portions of jaws are said to have been discovered by E.

Nordenskjöld.[42]

_Skull and Mandible._

The largest portion of cranium (No. 1) is not stained in any way, and

does not retain a trace of the material in which it was buried in any

hollow or crevice. It does not appear to have been damaged during

excavation, but exhibits fractures which were almost certainly made

when the animal was freshly killed. The cranial roof near the

occipital region is battered in four places, though the injuries do

not affect the brain-case itself; while the right occipital condyle is

partly removed by a sharp, clean cut. There can, indeed, be no doubt

that the animal was killed and cut to pieces by man.

This skull is evidently that of an adult animal, all the sutures in

the hinder region being closed. The inner wall of the temporal fossa

is much flattened, without any irregular convexities, but marked with

the characteristic reticulately-decussating, fine ridges of bone, and

studded with adherent patches of muscle-fibre. The upper border of the

fossa is a remarkably sharp edge, while the narrow flattened cranial

roof is only marked by a faint longitudinal median furrow and by a

diminutive tuft of fibre in a small median pit near the occipital

edge.[43] The fractures exhibit the very large cancellated chambers

surrounding the brain-case dorso-laterally; while a median

longitudinal section shows both these cells and others in the

basi-sphenoid. The basi-cranial axis is nearly straight, inclining a

little upwards in front. The anterior condyloid foramina piercing the

basi-occipital are remarkably large, as usual; the basi-sphenoid is

very long and narrow, flattened mesially on its lower face, but with

one slight median prominence near its hinder end; the pre-sphenoid

forms a short acute rostrum, above which there are remains of the

vomer. The hinder ends of the pterygoids are shown to be inflated with

large cancellæ, but the sides of the base of the skull are somewhat

obscured by the dried soft parts. The mastoid process of the periotic,

with its articular facette for the stylohyal, seems to be rather

smaller than in _Mylodon_. The tympanic bone is preserved on the right

side, though wanting on the left. It is an irregular curved plate only

slightly bullate, but forming a complete floor to the tympanic cavity.

As usual in Edentata, it is not produced into an auditory meatus.

The right maxilla (No. 4) is in precisely the same state of

preservation as the specimen just described, and probably belongs to

the same skull. Its anterior margin is perfectly preserved, indicating

that the facial region is very short in front of the anterior end of

the zygomatic arch, which is pierced by a rather large suborbital

canal. Its upper border proves that the nasal region was raised into a

slightly convex dome; while its antero-superior angle is not rounded

as in _Mylodon_, but curves upwards and forwards and ends in a point

as in _Grypotherium_. At the oral border there are the shattered bases

of four teeth.

A fragment of the nasal region (No. 13) may also have belonged to the

same skull, but its state of preservation is a little different from

that of the two specimens just described. It has clearly been buried

in a powdery deposit, which has stained it brown; but the enveloping

dust must have been extremely dry, for fragments of cartilage adhere

to it, as well preserved as in the nasal chamber of the cranium itself

(No. 1). It also bears traces of the integument.

Judging by the figures of the skull of _Grypotherium_ published by

Reinhardt (_loc. cit._), this specimen seems to have occupied an

anterior position in the nasal region. It is thus of great interest,

because the three known skulls of _Grypotherium_ leave the precise

nature of the bony arcade separating the narial openings undecided.

According to Reinhardt, the nasal bones terminate as in _Mylodon_, and

the arcade is an element interposed between them and the premaxillæ.

According to Burmeister, the nasals themselves extend forwards and

constitute the greater part, if not the whole, of the problematical

bar. The fragment now under consideration is clearly in favour of the

latter interpretation. Its lower thickened end is a massive bone, not

bilaterally symmetrical, and not showing any trace of a median suture.

Its inferior face is irregular and roughened, and can scarcely be

regarded as an articular facette. Its upper portion consists of a pair

of bones separated by a very well-marked median longitudinal suture.

These are not thickened at their contracted upper end, where they have

evidently been broken, and are not quite bilaterally symmetrical. They

doubtless fuse at their lower end with the problematical azygous bone

already mentioned, but the arrangement is obscured by the enveloping

soft parts. A pair of bones, which may be regarded as nasals, thus

extend forwards in a narrow arch to a point just above the anterior

end of the premaxillæ; while the massive bone effecting a union

between the two normal pairs of elements is probably an ossification

in the internasal septum. It is interesting to note that there is an

incipient trace of a similar forward production of the nasals in the

genus _Scelidotherium_; while there is sometimes an ossification of

the internasal septum in _Megatherium_.[44]

The three specimens now described, when placed approximately in their

natural positions, afford a very satisfactory idea of the form and

proportions of the skull when complete. The malar bone is the only

important part to be added; but unfortunately it is impossible to

decide which of the three specimens of this element in the collection

belongs to the individual now under consideration. As already

mentioned, these three bones are all different in the shape and

proportions of the hinder bifurcated end. They are all very fresh in

appearance, but have been stained reddish-brown by the earth in which

they must have been buried.

The hinder portion of the second skull already mentioned (No. 2)

comprises the occiput and brain-case as far forward as the front of

the cerebral hemispheres. It is much battered and broken, and in quite

as fresh a state as the cranium already described, with a considerable

investment of dried soft parts on its base. It is only very slightly

smaller than No. 1, but is of interest as exhibiting some of the

sutures, besides a roundness and smoothness indicative of immaturity.

The supraoccipital is shown to be very large; a small median point of

it enters the foramen magnum, while the suture separating it from the

parietals and squamosals extends along the rounded lambdoidal ridge.

The horizontally extended suture between the squamosal and parietal on

the inner wall of the temporal fossa is seen in the position where

Owen determined it to occur in _Mylodon_.[45] Both tympanics are

preserved, but they are more obscured by soft parts than in No. 1.

To this cranium probably belongs a detached portion of the left side

of the facial region (No. 5), in a similar state of preservation and

slightly smaller than the maxilla (No. 4). The suture between the

frontal and the maxilla still persists, while the oral border is

preserved farther forward than in the last-mentioned specimen, showing

a fragment of the much-reduced premaxilla united with the maxilla by a

jagged suture.

The third imperfect occiput is about as large as the immature specimen

No. 2, but does not exhibit any features worthy of special note.

The largest and most important portions of the mandible are Nos. 9 and

11, which evidently belong to the right and left rami of one and the

same jaw. They are much broken and are in the same fresh condition as

the skulls, with traces of the periosteum and even considerable

portions of the soft parts of the gum. The right ramus is preserved

sufficiently far forwards to show that there was no caniniform tooth

in front of the series of four ordinary molars. Judging by the extent

of the latter series, the specimen probably belongs to the same

individual as the skull No. 1.

Another portion of a mandibular ramus (No. 10) of the left side is

slightly smaller than the last and may well have belonged to the

immature individual No. 2. It is similarly quite fresh in appearance,

and bears the shrivelled remains of the gum. It is interesting as

exhibiting the two posterior molars slightly different in shape from

those of the former mandible. In this specimen the longer axis of the

third molar is oblique, whereas in No. 9 it is coincident with the

axis of the mandible; while in the former the fourth molar is not so

long in proportion to its width as in the latter. Such slight

differences, however, cannot be regarded in the Edentata as more than

individual variations.

_Brain-cavity and Cerebral Nerves._

By the kind permission of Dr. Moreno, the cranium No. 1 has been

vertically bisected to display the character of the cranial cavity and

the nerve-foramina. An instructive plaster-cast of the cavity has thus

been made by Mr. C. Barlow, the Formatore of the British Museum.

The olfactory lobes are shown to have been well developed, projecting

a little in front of the cerebral hemispheres. These hemispheres are

together somewhat longer than broad, slightly broader behind than in

front, and a little constricted in the middle. They do not overlap the

cerebellum, which is relatively large. The origins of the nerves are

very imperfectly shown in the cast; only their exits from the cranial

cavity are clear. The most interesting are the optic and trigeminal

nerves, which pass out of the cranial cavity at first by a common

exit, which is soon subdivided by a bony partition into two canals,

the former no less than 0.08 m., the latter 0.045 m. in length. The

fourth, seventh, eighth and twelfth nerves are also recognisable on

the cast; and one prominence of plaster has filled the foramen lacerum

posterius.

Compared with the brains of _Mylodon_ and _Scelidotherium_, so far as

known from casts of the cranial cavity,[46] that of _Grypotherium_ is

observed to be more elongated, with less divergent and prominent

olfactory lobes, less constricted cerebral hemispheres, and a larger

cerebellum. In the form and proportions of the cerebrum and

cerebellum, it similarly differs from _Megatherium_.[47] The cerebral

hemispheres of the existing _Cholœpus didactylus_ and _Bradypus

tridactylus_[48] are more tapering forward, and their cerebellum is

relatively smaller than in _Grypotherium_.

_Auditory Ossicles._

The auditory ossicles were preserved in the tympanic cavities of both

skulls, Nos. 1 and 2, being retained by the dried soft parts. They

were detected by Prof. Charles Stewart, who kindly extracted them,

with great skill, from both sides of each skull. Comparing these

ossicles with the fine collection in the Royal College of Surgeons,

they prove to be closely similar to those of all the existing Sloths,

but most nearly resembling those of _Cholœpus didactylus_. The

malleus is bent exactly as in the latter species, and is of similar

shape. As observed by Prof. Stewart, it is remarkable in articulating

with the incus not only by the head, but also by a diminutive lower

facet, which is in contact with a small facetted process on the

anterior arm of the incus. A feeble indication of the same secondary

articulation is also observable in _Cholœpus_; but it is curiously

absent in the second specimen of _Grypotherium_. The two divergent

arms of the incus are equal in length, as usual in the Sloths. The

stapes is only very slightly perforated in both specimens; while a

small circular disc firmly fixed to the incus represents the orbicular

bone in the second skull. The auditory ossicles of _Grypotherium_,

therefore, are very different from those of _Myrmecophaga_, in which

the malleus is less sharply bent, the incus has divergent arms of

unequal length, and the stapes exhibits a large perforation.[49]

_Vertebræ and Limb-bones._

Nearly all the remains of vertebræ and limb-bones are in the same

state of preservation as the portions of skull and mandible already

described, with adherent cartilage and traces of muscles and

ligaments. With some of the ungual phalanges there are also

well-preserved examples of the epidermal sheath. As already remarked

by Roth, the edges of one sheath probably belonging to the fourth

digit of the manus, are quite sharp, and indicate that if the animal

walked on its fore feet it resembled _Myrmecophaga_ in the peculiar

twist of the manus.

All the specimens in this series seem to have been accurately

determined and sufficiently described by Roth. It is only necessary to

emphasise the fact that the two shafts of humerus with abraded, not

sharply broken, ends have a much more fossilised appearance than any

other specimen in the collection, and are deeply stained throughout by

ferruginous matter. The small shaft, No. 22, certainly seems to have

belonged to an adult animal, as remarked by Roth, and it was probably

much smaller than any individual indicated by the other remains.

_Skin and Hair._

The new piece of skin, which is stated by Hauthal to have been found

in the deposit of excrement, is not quite so well preserved as the

original piece. It is much folded in an irregular manner; and the

hair, which is yellower than in the previous specimen, is preserved

only in patches on the outer face. It must have been stripped from the

body of the animal by man; but the only distinct marks of tools, which

were evidently made when the skin was fresh, are a few indents and

small pits on the outer face. The indents must have been made by

oblique thrusts of a stick, or a small, blunt, chisel-shaped

instrument. The small pittings are nearer the middle of the specimen

and less conspicuous. A vacuity in the skin seems to be due to

accidental tearing or to a thrust after it was dry: it may even have

been caused by the fallen blocks of stone found lying upon it.

The specimen, as preserved, measures about a metre across in one

direction by 93 centimetres in another direction. As already observed

by Roth, its irregular folding makes the determination of its position

on the trunk very difficult; but I am convinced that its state of

preservation is not sufficiently good to justify an attempt to unfold

the skin by the ordinary method of steaming. Taking all facts into

consideration, Roth seems to be correct in ascribing it to the right

flank and the postero-superior part of one of the limbs. It most

probably belongs to the fore limb, as Roth supposes; but there is no

clear proof that it is not referable to the hind-quarters.

The original situation of the piece of skin being thus determined, it

is interesting to observe the disposition of the ossicles in the lower

layer. Owing to abrasion, contraction, and partial disintegration,

they are conspicuous in most parts of the specimen. They are very

irregular in shape and size, and closely compacted together, as in the

previous specimen. It is, however, to be noted that in some parts

there is a distinct tendency to arrangement in regular, straight,

parallel rows. The long axes of the elongated ossicles are nearly

always coincident with the direction of these rows. They are

especially well shown on the middle of the flank; and, as might be

expected, the rows are here disposed vertically, parallel with the

ribs.

In some parts of the skin the ossicles are exposed on their outer

face; but appearances render it almost certain that this exposure is

due to the disintegration and abrasion of the specimen. In one patch

thus uncovered by the removal of the soft parts, the ossicles are seen

to form a closely arranged, flattened pavement; and their outer face

is much more conspicuously marked by pittings than that of any ossicle

extracted from the first discovered piece of skin. In fact, as Roth

remarks, the pitting is here quite similar to that observable on many

ossicles dug up in association with the fossil skeletons of _Mylodon_;

though it does not form so regular a reticulate pattern as that of the

dermal ossicles of _Mylodon_ in the British Museum figured on the

former occasion.[50]

Another interesting feature of the new piece of skin consists in the

dwindling and even total absence of the ossicles towards the ventral

border. A section along the edge exhibits only two diminutive nodules

of bone in a length of 0.1 m.; while another similar section taken

vertically from the skin of the limb shows no trace of ossicles,

except perhaps two little specks. It must, however, be noted that the

limb was not entirely destitute of armour; for on the border the bones

are as well developed and conspicuous as on the middle of the flank.

In the newly-cut sections the skin has a translucent aspect, showing

that it is merely dried and not tanned in any way.

The hair on the new specimen varies in length from 0.07 m. or 0.10 m.

to 0.15 m. or 0.22 m. It is thus longer than that of the previous

piece of skin. Masses of still longer hairs--some 0.30 m. in

length--were found detached among the excrement, and these are also

believed by Roth to belong to the same animal. His determination is

probably correct; for, when examined microscopically, these long hairs

are observed to have a perfectly smooth cuticle, while some transverse

sections (kindly made by Mr. R. H. Burne) demonstrate the complete

absence of a medulla, exactly as in the short hairs. The latter

feature proves that they cannot be referred either to the horse or to

the guanaco.

_Excrement._

The large cylindrical pieces of excrement, which may be referred to

_Grypotherium_ without any hesitation, have already been described and

figured by Dr. Roth. They consist of irregular discoids of herbaceous

matter closely pressed together, the largest measuring no less than

0.18 m. in diameter. Mr. Spencer Moore has kindly examined them from

the botanist's point of view and reports that they are composed "in

large part apparently of grasses, as the haulms, leaf-sheaths,

fragments of leaves, &c., of these plants are frequent in the mass. A

spikelet, almost entire, of what seems to be a species of _Poa_, and

the flowering glume of another grass, probably avenaceous, have also

been found. Besides these there are at least two dicotyledonous

plants, one herbaceous and the other almost certainly so, the latter

having a slender greatly sclerotised stem. Unfortunately, as no leaves

have hitherto been observed attached to the fragments of stem, their

affinities are altogether doubtful. There are numerous silicious

particles in the excrement, and there are many pieces of the

underground parts of the plants, suggesting that they have been pulled

out of the ground. A few pieces of stems are sharply cut, not bruised

or torn at the end." The latter fact is especially important in

connection with Dr. Hauthal's discovery of cut hay in the cavern, and

his theory that the _Grypotherium_ was kept in captivity and fed by

man.

_Generic and Specific Determination._

The fortunate discovery of all parts of the skull and dentition

renders the generic determination of this Ground-Sloth now quite

certain. The teeth show that it belongs to the family Mylodontidæ; the

presence of only four instead of five upper molars separates it from

the genera _Mylodon_, _Lestodon_, and _Scelidotherium_; the forward

production of the nasals and the ossification of part of the

internarial septum place it definitely in the allied genus

_Grypotherium_, as originally diagnosed by Reinhardt. The only

question needing consideration is, whether the fragment of cranium

described by Owen in 1840 as the type of the genus _Glossotherium_[51]

is really identical with that subsequently described by Reinhardt

under the name of _Grypotherium darwini_, as now seems to be commonly

believed.