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More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 1 by Charles Darwin
page 45 of 655 (06%)
As I have nobody to talk to about my luck and ill luck in collecting, I am
determined to vent it all upon you. I have been very lucky with fossil
bones; I have fragments of at least 6 distinct animals: as many of them
are teeth, I trust, shattered and rolled as they have been, they will be
recognised. I have paid all the attention I am capable of to their
geological site; but of course it is too long a story for here. 1st, I
have the tarsi and metatarsi very perfect of a Cavia; 2nd, the upper jaw
and head of some very large animal with four square hollow molars and the
head greatly protruded in front. I at first thought it belonged either to
the Megalonyx or Megatherium (4/1. The animal may probably have been
Grypotherium Darwini, Ow. The osseous plates mentioned below must have
belonged to one of the Glyptodontidae, and not to Megatherium. We are
indebted to Mr. Kerr for calling our attention to a passage in Buckland's
"Bridgewater Treatise" (Volume II., page 20, note), where bony armour is
ascribed to Megatherium.); in confirmation of this in the same formation I
found a large surface of the osseous polygonal plates, which "late
observations" (what are they?) show belong to the Megatherium. Immediately
I saw this I thought they must belong to an enormous armadillo, living
species of which genus are so abundant here. 3rd, The lower jaw of some
large animal which, from the molar teeth, I should think belonged to the
Edentata; 4th, some large molar teeth which in some respects would seem to
belong to an enormous rodent; 5th, also some smaller teeth belonging to the
same order. If it interests you sufficiently to unpack them, I shall be
very curious to hear something about them. Care must be taken in this case
not to confuse the tallies. They are mingled with marine shells which
appear to me identical with what now exist. But since they were deposited
in their beds several geological changes have taken place in the country.
So much for the dead, and now for the living: there is a poor specimen of
a bird which to my unornithological eyes appears to be a happy mixture of a
lark, pigeon and snipe (No. 710). Mr. MacLeay himself never imagined such
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