TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION C 695 



PISCES. 



Bagarius, 1. 



Now, until within the last few years, this fauna was classed as Miocene by 

 European palaeontologists as unhesitatingly as the Pikermi fauna still is, and in the 

 majority of European geological works, despite the unanimous opinion of all the 

 geologists who are acquainted with the sub-Himalayan beds, the Siwalik fauna is 

 still called Miocene. The geologists of the Indian Survey, however, class the 

 fossiliferous Siwaliks as Pliocene, on both geological and biological grounds. With 

 regard to the latter not only does the fauna comprise a large number of existing 

 genera of mammals, such as Macacus, Semnopithecus, Ursus. Elephas (Euelephas), 

 Equus, Hippopotamus, Camelopardal-is, Bos, Hystri.r, Mus, and especially Melli- 

 rora, Meles, Capra, Oris, Camelus, and Rhizomys, but three out of six or seven 

 clearly determined species of reptiles, viz.— Crocodihis palustris, Gharialis gangeticus, 

 and Pangshura tectum— are living forms now inhabiting Northern India, whilst all 

 the known land and fresh-water mollusca, with one possible exception, are recent 

 species. 



These data, however, although very important and very, cogent,. belong to a 

 class of facts that have led, I believe, in other cases to erroneous conclusions. The 

 geological evidence is far more satisfactory, and. it is not liable to "the same 

 objection. 



The whole Siwalik fauna, as given above, has been obtained from the upper 

 beds of a great sequence or system. Beneath the fossiliferous strata at the base of 

 the North-West Himalaya there is an immense thickness, amounting in places to 

 many thousands of feet, of sandstones, clays, and other beds, from none of which 

 recognisable fossils have been procured. The first beds of known age that are 

 met with below the mammaliferoua Siwaliks are marine rocks belonging to the 

 Eocene system. 



But as we pass from the Himalayas to the south-west, along the western 

 frontier of India in the Punjab, and onwards to the south in Sind, the same Siwalik 

 system can be traced almost without interruption, and in the last-named country 

 the lower unfossiliferous strata become intercalated with fossiliferous beds. In Sind 

 the upper Siwaliks no longer yield any vertebrate remains that can be identified, but 

 far below the horizon of the Siwalik fauna a few bones have been found, and the 

 following mammals have been identified : — l 



Cabnivoea. — Amphicyon palmndicus. 



Peoboscidea. — Mastodon latidens, M. perimensis, M. falconeri, M. pandionis, 

 M. angustidens, Vinotherium indicum, I). sindiense, D. pentepotamiee. 



TJngulata. — Rhinoceros sivalensU, var. intermedins, Acerotherium perimense, 

 A. blanfordi, Sits hysudricus, Hyotherium sindiense, Anthracotherium 

 silistrense, A. hyopotamoides, Hyopotamus palmndicus, H. giganteus, Hemi- 

 mery.v blanfordi, Sivameryx sindiensis, Agriochcerus sp., Dorcatherium majus, 

 D. minus. 



Edentata. — Manis (?) sindiensis. 



Although about one-third of the species above named have been found also in 

 the upper Siwalik beds of the Punjab, it is unnecessary to point out in detail why 

 the lower Siwalik fauna is clearly by far the older of the two. The absence of 

 such living genera as Elephas, Bos, Equus, &c, and the presence of so many 

 typically Middle Tertiary forms, such as Dinotherium, Anthracotherium, and 

 Hyopotamus, shows a great change. The mollusca tell the same tale. All the 

 forms known from the upper Siwaliks, with one exception, are recent species of 

 land and fresh-water shells now living in the area. Of seven fresh-water 

 mollusca - found associated with the lower Siwaliks none appears to be identical 

 with any living species, and only two are allied, one closely, the other more 

 remotely, to forms now met with in Burma 30° of longitude further east. 



1 Pal. Ind. ser. x. : Bee. Geol. Sun: Ind. 1883. pp. 82, &c. 



2 Mem. Geol. Surv. Ind. vol. xx. pt. 2, p. 129. 



