138 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [April 



of Mr. Lonsdale, gave him access to the collection of Indian fossil 

 mammalia from the banks of the Irawaddy formed by Mr. John 

 Crawford, during his mission to Ava. The description of these 

 remains by Mr. Clift had excited much interest in the scientific 

 world, as the first instance in which the ground was broken in the 

 Palaeontology of tropical regions. In both cases the occupation 

 proved of material service to the subject of our memoir in his sub- 

 sequent career, and in the latter instance it determined the labors 

 to which he afterwards so zealously devoted himself. For, imme- 

 diately after his arrival in Calcutta, in September 1830, he 

 undertook the examination of a collection of fossil bones from Ava, 

 in the possession of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and communi- 

 cated a short paper upon them, which appeared early in 1831, in 

 the third volume of the c Gleanings in Science,' an Indian journal 

 then conducted by the late Mr. James Prinsep. 



Early in 1831, Dr. Falconer was ordered to the army station 

 of Meerut, in the north-western provinces. His first and last 

 military duty during twenty-six years of service was to take charge 

 of a detachment of invalids proceeding to the Sanatorium of Lan- 

 dour in the Himalayas. This led him to pass through Suharun- 

 pore, where the late Dr. Boyle was then superintendent of the 

 Botanic Gardens. Kindred tastes and common pursuits soon 

 knit Falconer and Royle together ; and at the instance of his 

 friend, Falconer was speedily appointed to officiate for him during 

 leave of absence, and, on his departure for Europe in 1832, to 

 succeed him in charge of the Botanic Garden. 



In 1832 Dr. Falconer commenced his field explorations by 

 an excursion to the sub-Himalayan range ; and from the indication 

 of a specimen in the collection of his friend and colleague Captain, 

 now Sir Proby T. Cautley, he was led to discover vertebrate fossil 

 remains in situ in the tertiary strata of the Sewalik Hills. Early 

 in 1834 Dr. Falconer gave a brief account of the Sewalik Hills, 

 describing their physical features and geological structure, with 

 the first published section showing their relation to the Himalayas. 



The researches thus begun were followed, about the end of 

 1834, by the discovery, by Lieuts. Baker and Durand, of the 

 great ossiferous deposits of the Sewaliks, near the valley of 

 Markunda, westward of the Jumna and below Nahun. Capt. 

 Cautley and Dr. Falconer were immediately in the field ; and, by 

 the joint labors of these four officers, a sub-tropical mammalian 

 fossil Fauna was brought to light, unexampled for richness and 



