SOME INDIAN MONSTERS. 163 



stag, and the antelope, together with a colossal creature unknown 

 before, the Sivatherium, which has never been found else- 

 where ; a huge tortoise, and various species of carnivora, rodents, 

 and apes. 



With regard to the geography of the region, it appears that the 

 continent of India, at an early period of the Tertiary era, was 

 a large island, situated in a bight, or bay, formed by the Hima- 

 layas and the Hindo Koosh range. The valleys of the Ganges 

 and Indus formed a long estuary, into which the drainage of the 

 Himalayas poured its silt and alluvium. Later on, an upheaval 

 took place, converting these straits into the plains of India, 

 connecting them with the ancient island, and forming the existing 

 continent. The large and varied forms whose remains now lie 

 "sealed within the iron hills" then spread over the continent, 

 from the Irrawaddi to the mouths of the Indus, two thousand 

 miles; and north-west to the Jhelum, fifteen hundred miles. 

 After a long interval of repose, another great upheaval took place, 

 which threw up a strip of the plains of India, crumpled and ridged 

 it up to form the Sivalik Hills, and at the same time increased the 

 elevation of the Himalayas by many thousands of feet. 



It would be easy to show that such events as these must have 

 been followed by changes in climate, for the climate of a region 

 depends largely on its physical features the proportion of land 

 and water, the presence of hills and mountain ranges, and their 

 height ; and it is considered probable that the physical changes 

 above mentioned helped to bring about the extinction of this 

 most interesting and ancient fauna. Throughout the latter part 

 of the Tertiary era it is well known to geologists that the 

 climate of Europe was becoming gradually colder, until at last 

 a glacial period, or " Ice Age," was experienced, during which 

 Northern Europe was subjected to an arctic climate, and the great 

 ice-sheet seems to have been slowly retiring and melting away in 

 the early part of the Stone Age. But in India there has been 

 no such decrease in temperature, and it enjoyed in Tertiary times 



