A History of Land Mammals in the Western Hemisphere

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Macmillan, 1937 - 786 pages
 

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Page 47 - All the small rivers became highly saline, and this caused the death of vast numbers in particular spots ; for when an animal drinks of such water it does not recover. Azara describes* the fury of the wild horses on a similar occasion, rushing into the marshes, those which arrived first being overwhelmed and crushed by those which followed.
Page 47 - Callabonna, that will be afterwards described, in the fact that its bed has lately been shown to be a veritable necropolis of gigantic extinct Marsupials and Birds, which have apparently died where they lie, literally in hundreds. The facts that the bones of individuals are often unbroken, close together and frequently in their proper relative positions, the attitude of many of the bodies and the character of the matrix in which they are embedded, negative any theory that they have been carried thither...
Page 47 - Subsequently to the drought of 1827 to 1832, a very rainy season followed, which caused great floods. Hence it is almost certain that some thousands of the skeletons were buried by the deposits of the very next year. What would be the opinion of a geologist, viewing such an enormous collection of bones, of all kinds of animals and of all ages, thus embedded in one thick earthy mass ? Would he not attribute it to a flood having swept over the surface of the land, rather than to the common order of...
Page 47 - I was informed by an eye-witness that the cattle, in herds of thousands, rushed into the Parana, and being exhausted by hunger they were unable to crawl up the muddy banks, and thus were drowned.
Page 47 - The period included between the years 1827 and 1830 is called the "gran seco," or the great drought. During this time so little rain fell, that the vegetation, even to the thistles, failed; the brooks were dried up, and the whole country assumed the appearance of a dusty high road. This was especially the case in the northern part of the province of Buenos Ayres and the southern part of St.
Page 47 - Without doubt several hundred thousand animals thus perished in the river; their bodies, when putrid, were seen floating down the stream ; and many in all probability were deposited in the estuary of the Plata. All the small rivers became highly saline, and this caused the death of vast numbers in particular spots ; for when an animal drinks of such water it does not recover. Azara describes...
Page 38 - Man there are two incisors, one canine, two premolars and three molars on each side of each jaw...
Page 1 - Linmeus to segregate all the mammiferous animals — the hairy quadrupeds, the bats, the sirenians, and the cetaceans — in a single class. No one before had appreciated the closeness of the relations of the. several types, and there was no name for the new class (or concept) as there was for all his other classes. A name, therefore, had to be devised. It was another happy inspiration that led Linna?us to name the class "mammalia.
Page 98 - Humidity and other secondary causes determine the presence or absence of particular species in particular localities within their appropriate zones, but temperature pre-determines the possibilities of distribution; it fixes the limits beyond which the species cannot pass
Page viii - Almost twenty-four years have passed since the appearance of the first edition of this book, and during all that time the work of exploring and collecting has gone on unremittingly.

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