Library of Cryptozoology

In September of the same year [1900], the government of the Territory sent a note to the Chief of Police, Pedro Martínez, with instructions to "hand over to Messrs. Steinkamp, ​​and Nicolás Illin, upon receipt, two Mauser rifles and four hundred bullet cartridges ... These inhabitants of the Corcovado River [...] intend to beat the banks of the Argentine lake 'General Paz' [Lake Vintter] trying to hunt the Yemische of the Indians, ' Neo Mylodon Lista Ameghino ', which they say they have seen in that region."

Mr. [Nicholas] Illin, who has recently been exploring in the Andes of Chubut ... believes that in a country where nothing rots for 20 years, probably also nothing would rot for ten thousand years, and that the skin and bones of mylodons found are of great age ... Mr. Illin tels us that there is a large animal of the beaver class. He saw a lady in Chubut who has a boa made of the skin of one which is of a yellowish color. He also saw footprints of, as is supposed, this animal which has no name as yet. The prints were smaller than those of a puma but larger than those of any other carnivorous animal in those parts; for they were evidently of a carnivorous animal. Several Indians and settlers had seen this beast, but it is very rare.