Falcojier and his Labours in India 335 



fore, to belong to the present order of things. The great extinct 

 kangaroo of AustraHa is represented by one of smaller size, iden- 

 tical in every respect save its smaller stature, and therefore it is 

 assumed to have lived at no very remote geological epoch, and 

 because both these animals stand in the same relation to the fauna 

 still living in South America and Australia, they belong approxi- 

 matively to the same geological epoch. In no case are the fossil 

 mammalia found in Europe looked upon as the tests of age in the 

 comparison of fossils from other areas. There is no reason why 

 the classification of the Siwalik fauna should be conducted on other 

 principles than these, because a few of the animals are common 

 also to the miocenes of Europe. There is, indeed, this great and 

 important difference between them, that while in India several of 

 the Siwalik species are still alive, in Europe all have become 

 utterly extinct. It would be as fair to term the marsupial fauna of 

 the Australian caves liassic, because it is represented in part in 

 the secondary formation of Europe, as to consider that of the 

 Siwalik hills miocene because of its affinities with the miocene 

 animals of France, Germany, and Britain. A careful analysis of 

 of the evidence leads us to the conclusion that the Siwalik fauna 

 began to live in the miocene, and that it lived on uninterruptedly 

 to the present day in the same area — the true miocene forms, found 

 also in Europe, being gradually eliminated by the competition of 

 others better fitted for the struggle of life. 



How comes it to pass that the Siwalik fauna should be locked 

 up in the bosom of hills as high as Snowdon. In answering this 

 question, Dr. Falconer has lighted on a most important fact for the 

 physical geographers. The rocks of which they are composed are 

 made up of sandstones and clays similar in character to those which 

 are now being swept down by the rivers of the district, and they 

 contain fluviatile shells of existing species. They are, therefore, 

 indisputably detritus brought down by ancient rivers, and the en- 

 tombed animals are merely waifs and strays swept down by the 

 floods. The only hypothesis which will at once satisfy their 

 enormous thickness of 2000 feet and more, and their great extent 

 of 272 miles is, that they were deposited in the debouchment of a 

 river. The occurrence, also, of elephants, camels, giraffes, and 

 other large animals shews that the river passed through great plains, 

 for none of them are dwellers in mountains. We have, therefore, a 

 great fluviatile deposit in an estuary, which would imply that it was 

 near the level of the sea, now elevated ^000 feet above it. The 



