OF CREATION. 333 



There is besides a singular and interesting group of 

 ruminants, including giraffes, antelopes, deer of vari- 

 ous kinds, and many others more or less resembling 

 the existing animals of the order. Some anomalous 

 species are also met with, extremely different from 

 existing forms ; and, in addition to these mammals 

 there are a number of reptiles, amongst which' is a 

 tortoise of the most portentous dimensions. 



The detailed history of these animals, and the con- 

 clusions derived from the careful study of the nume- 

 rous and perfect remains of them that have been 

 obtained, have not yet been presented to the world 

 by the naturalists best qualified to determine these 

 matters, although the fossils have been the subject of 

 careful study for a long time, and a magnificent work, 

 in which they are described and figured, is now in 

 course of publication.* The account given of them 

 by myself, in a work published in the autumn of 

 1844,f is still the only general outline on record, and 

 I am obliged therefore to repeat some portion of that 

 in the present chapter. 



Of the various animals whose remains are found in 

 these Indian tertiaries, among the most striking, from 

 its shape and proportions, was that designated " Si- 

 vatherium." J This animal appears to have been as 

 large as the rhinoceros. Its head was even larger 

 in proportion, and was shaped like that of the ele- 

 phant, being provided with a small trunk or pro- 

 boscis ; the eyes were small and sunk, the head very 



* Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis. By Capt. Cautley and Dr. Falconer. 

 t Ansted's Geology, Introductory, Descriptive and Practical, vol. ii. 

 pp. 98 et seq. 



J From the Indian god Siva, an Qrjpiov (therion), a beast. 



