supposition; as one
might inquire, to what end the labour of such works, in a country where
beasts of burden were unknown?

"But I leave this subject to wiser heads and bolder theorists. Had the
Mammoth of Chapingo been discovered with a ring in his nose, or a bit in
his mouth, a yoke on his head, or a crupper under his tail, the
question would have been set at rest. As it is, there is plenty of room
for conjecture and dispute."[13]

With respect to the great extinct Mammalia of South America, we find Mr
Darwin, to whom we are indebted for our knowledge of so many of them,
continually expressing his wonder at the comparatively modern era of
their existence. After having enumerated nine vast beasts, which he
found imbedded in the beach at Bahia Blanca, within the space of 200
yards square, and remarked how numerous in kinds the ancient inhabitants
of the country must have been, he observes that "this enumeration
belongs to a very late tertiary period. From the bones of the
_Scelidotherium_, including even the kneecap, being entombed in their
proper relative positions, and from the osseous armour of the great
armadillo-like animal being so well preserved, together with the bones
of one of its legs, we may feel assured that these remains were fresh
and united by their ligaments when deposited in the gravel with the
shells. Hence we have good evidence that the above-enumerated gigantic
quadrupeds, more different from those of the present day than the oldest
of the tertiary quadrupeds of Europe, lived whilst the sea was peopled
with most of its present inhabitants."[14]

Of the remains of the Mylodon, and of that strange semi-aquatic creature
the Toxodon, he says, they appeared so fresh that it was difficult to
believe they had lain buried for ages under ground. The bones were so
fresh, that they yielded, on careful analysis, seven per cent. of
animal matter, and when heated in the flame of a spirit-lamp, they not
only exhaled a very strong animal odour, but actually burned with a
small flame.

Mr Darwin's interest was excited by the evidences everywhere present of
the immensity of this extinct population. "The number of the remains
imbedded in the great estuary-deposit which forms the Pampas, and covers
the gigantic rocks of Banda Oriental, must be extraordinarily great. I
believe a straight line drawn in any direction through the Pampas would
cut through some skeleton or bones.... We may suppose that the whole
area o