1843.] 247 



tertiary sub-Himalayan range, made by the authors during ten years 

 in that part of India, they have never found a single fragment of a 

 head or tooth which they were able to refer to PalcEotherium. This 

 is merely a negative result, and only proves the rarity of that form*. 



Although there occur among the Sewalik fossils abundant re- 

 mains of almost every large pachydermatous genus, such as the 

 elephant, mastodon, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, sus, horse, &c., yet 

 no remain has been found referrible to the Tapir, a fact the more 

 remarkable, inasmuch as one of the only two existing species of that 

 genus is now confined to the larger Indian islands and a part of the 

 adjoining continent. 



The finding of the giraffe as a fossil, furnishes another link to the 

 rapidly increasing chain which (as the discoveries of year after year 

 evince) will sooner or later connect extinct with existing forms in a 

 continuous series. The bovine, antelope, and antlered ruminants 

 have numerous representatives, both recent and fossil. The camel 

 tribe comprises a considerable fossil group, represented in India by 

 the Camelus Sivalensis, and is closely approached to in America by 

 extinct Pachydermatous Macrauchenia. The giraffe has hitherto 

 been confined, like the human race, to a single species, and has 

 occupied an isolated position in the order to which it belongs. It is 

 now as closely represented by its fossil analogues as the camel ; 

 and it may be expected that, when the ossiferous beds of Asia and 

 Africa are better known, other intermediate forms will be found, 

 filling up the wide interval which now separates the giraflre from the 

 antlered ruminants, its nearest allies in the order according to 

 Cuvier and Owenf. 



The girafi^e throws a new light on the original physical characters 

 of Northern India ; for whatever may be urged in regard to the 

 possible range of its vegetable food, it is very clear that, like the 

 existing species, it must have inhabited an open countrj'-, and had 

 broad plains to roam over. In a densely forest-clad tract, like that 



* Mr. M'Clelland in his paper on Hexaprotodon (Journ. Asiatic Society 

 of Bengal, vol. vii. p. 1046) casually mentions a species of Paleeotherium 

 as occurring among the Sewalik fossils. But he does not describe or figure 

 the specimen. Messrs. Baker and Durand in their remarks appended to 

 their catalogue of the Dadoopor collection (Idem, vol. v. p. 836), mention 

 four specimens containing teeth of the upper and lower jaws belonging to 

 what they provisionally designate " Cuvierian genera :" in regard to one of 

 which, having the upper and lower jaws in contact, they state that, "although 

 it affords some analogies both to the Palaeotherium and Anoplotherium, 

 its essential peculiarities are sufficiently remarkable to cause it to be 

 separated from either genus." Till these specimens are either figured or 

 described, the point must remain undecided in regard to Palaeotherium 

 being represented in the Sewalik fauna. 



f M. G. de St. Hilaire, in his zeal for the mutability of species, ima- 

 gined that he had detected in the Sivatherium the primeval type which 

 time and necessity had fined down into the giraffe. Anatomical proofs 

 were all against this inference ; but if a shadow of doubt remained, it must 

 yield to the fact, that in the Sewahk fauna the Giraffe and the Sivatherium 

 were contemporaries. 



