149 



of the cranium of some gigautic ruminant discovered by 

 himself when on a visit to the island, and which he 

 considered to be an entirely new genus. During the 

 same year Dr. Hugh Falconer, the greatest authority of 

 the day on Indian palaeontology, having had occasion to 

 examine the collections of Perim fossils in the British 

 Museum and the Museum of the Geological Society, with 

 reference to that magnificent work on the fossil favina of 

 Northern India, on which Colonel Cavitley and himself 

 were engaged, the Fauna Antiqua Sivaletms, gave to the 

 world his very valuable memoir on some new forms and 

 genera from that locality.* 



The fossils of Perim are intended to be described in 

 the Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis. The publication of this 

 serial was commenced some twelve years ago ; ten num- 

 bers of the plates appeared in quick succession, but only 

 one of the letter-press. I am glad to say that this grand 

 undertaking has been resumed after so long a pause, and 

 we may expect soon to see it completed in the same 

 masterly style in which it was begun. 



If we take into consideration the small extent of Perim, 

 I think there is no locality in the world which has fur- 

 nished so many interesting remains of those beings 

 which, during the second division of the Tertiary epoch, 

 roamed masters of the earth. 



Among the pachydermata, parts of that most singular 

 of tlie class, the Dcinothcriura, have been detected. Dr. 

 Falconer has the honour of being the first to discover 

 that this extraordinary animal, which hitherto was sup- 

 posed to be confined to Europe — its remains having been 

 found only in Germany and France — once wallowed in the 

 swamps and lakes of primeval India. In the memoir to 

 which I have before alluded, ho gives a long history 

 of liis examination of part of a molar tooth and a frag- 



• " Jourticil of the Geological Society," vol. i. p. 35C. 



