In a letter of July 3d, I informed our late most worthy president that some bones of a very large animal of the clawed kind had been recently discovered within this state, and promised a communication on the subject as soon as we could recover what were still recoverable of them. It is well known that the substratum of the country beyond the Blue Ridge is a limestone, abounding with large caverns, the earthy floors of which are highly impregnated with nitre; and that the inhabitants are in the habit of extracting the nitre from them. In digging the floor of one of these eaves, belonging to Frederic Cromer in the country of Greenbriar, the labourers at the depth of two or three feet, came to some bones, the size and form of which bespoke an animal unknown to them. The nitrous impregnation of the earth together with a small degree of petrification had probably been the means of their preservation. The importance of the discovery was not known to those who made it, yet it excited conversation in the neighbourhood, and led persons of vague curiosity to seek and take away the bones. It was fortunate for science that one of its zealous and well-informed friends, Colonel John Stewart of that neighbourhood, heard of the discovery, and, sensible from their description, that they were of an animal not known, took measure without delay for saving those which still remained.