Page:Omniana 2.djvu/119



M. Henderstrom has discovered in that part of the Russian dominions which he calls New Siberia, the claws of a bird, measuring each a yard in length, and the Yakuts assured him they had frequently in their hunting excursions met with skeletons, and even feathers of this bird, the quills of which were large enough to admit a man's fist. This is the strongest fact which has yet appeared in support of the almost universal tradition, that the earth was formerly inhabited by a race of giants. For though men not exceeding ourselves in stature might have defended themselves against the Megatherion, they would have been helpless against birds of prey of this magnitude.

There is a passage in the Viage de las Goletas Mexicana y Sutil, which gives some reason for supposing that this bird is not extinct. A chief at Nootka, where the image of a large bird seemed to be held in some degree of veneration, drew