THE ORIENTAL REGION 151 



Siwalik deposits lying along the foot of the Himalayas. 

 These beds, especially the latter, contain the remains of 

 an extensive and exceedingly interesting Mammalian 

 fauna, which has hitherto been very inadequately ex- 

 plored, and will probably afford abundant opportunities 

 of discovery to the palaeontologist of the future. 



The number of genera hitherto discovered in these 

 formations amounts in all to about sixty, of which thirty- 

 nine are still in existence, while twenty-five are extinct. 

 Among the recent genera are a considerable number which, 

 though still occurring in Africa, have become extinct in 

 the Oriental Region; such are Bubalis, Cobus, Oreas, 

 and Strepsiceros — all genera of antelopes, Giraffa (the 

 Giraffe), Hippopotamus, Loxodon (the African Elephant), 

 Cynocephalus (the African Baboon), and Anthropopithecus 

 (the Chimpanzee), while others still survive in India. 



The most remarkable feature, however, of the Siwalik 

 fauna is the fact that, while certain of the genera are 

 only found in Miocene beds in Europe, and not in more 

 recent deposits, the greater number are only known, out 

 of India, from the Pliocene and Pleistocene, so that it is 

 very difficult to fix the age of the Siwaliks as compared 

 with the formations of Europe. 



Beds containing a somewhat similar fauna, in most 

 cases not so rich, have been discovered in Greece, near 

 Athens, in Samos, and in one or two other localities, at 

 least, in South-Western Europe ; while north of the Alps 

 nothing of the sort has been found of a corresponding 

 age. The most plausible explanation of the whole 

 matter, therefore, so far as we can say at present, is that 

 the increasing cold at the end of the Miocene and the 

 beginning of the Pliocene times gradually drove the 



