153 



too, voracious gavials and theiv congeners swarmed — 

 they were the scavengers, and eagerly devoured and 

 cleared away all decaying animal matter. 



In corroboration of this theory, I may mention that 

 extensive lacustrine deposits, altered and disrupted by 

 basaltic rocks, have been met with over a wide extent of 

 the Deccan, containing the freshwater shells Paludina, 

 PJiysa, Lwinea, Unio, and Cypris* 



The Sivatherium, Bramatherium, and giraffe no doubt 

 were to be found on the Pampas-like plains, which ex- 

 tended far and wide over the land, and which were 

 scoured too by the hippotherium, antelope, and bison. 

 Reasoning from analogy, we might infer that a country 

 whose fauna, independently of other singular forms, in- 

 cluded those of the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, 

 and giraffe, must have borne many points of resemblance 

 to Southern Africa, the only land in the world where we 

 find these four extraordinary tyjDes associated. 



On the verdant isles on the coast, and in the months 

 of rivers, rhinoceros, sus, deer, and carnivora no doubt 

 abounded, jnst as we find them at the present day in 

 similar situations in the mouth of the Ganges. It is easy 

 to see how, during periodical inundations and floods, the 

 remains of these animals would be swept into streams 

 and carried out into estuaries and gulfs into which the 

 rivers discharged themselves. 



During the monsoon, when all the great rivers of India 

 are swollen to an extraordinary size, immense quantities 

 of bones of oxen, deer, horses, and bears, and masses of 

 timber are carried down into the gulf of Cambay, in the 

 waters of the Subbermutty, Mhye, Nerbudda, and Taptee, 

 and imbedded in the vast beds of sediment which sub- 

 side at tlieir months. 



The fossils of Perim appear to have been exposed for 



• Malcolmson. " Opological Transartions." Spiies 2, vol. v. p. .570. 



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