Geological Society of London. 103 
violent flood or débacle, or transient passage of the sea over the land, 
but by a prolonged submersion of the land, the level of which has 
been greatly altered at periods very modern in our geological chro- 
nology. I now believe that by far the greatest part of the dispersion 
of transported matter has been due to the ordinary moving power of 
water, often assisted by ice, and cooperating with the alternate up- 
heaval and depression of Jand. I do not mean wholly to deny that 
some sudden rushes of water and partial inundations of the sea have 
occurred, but we are enabled to dispense with their agency more and 
more in proportion as our knowledge increases. 
ORGANIC REMAINS. .- 
Gentlemen, you have been already informed that the Council 
have this year awarded two Wollaston Medals, one to Captain Proby 
Cautley of the Bengal Artillery and the other to Dr. Hugh Falconer, 
Superintendent of the Botanic Garden at Saharunpore, for their 
researches in the geology of India, and more particularly their dis- 
covery of many fossil remains of extinct quadrupeds at the southern 
foot of the Himalaya mountains. At our last anniversary I took ocea- 
sion to acknowledge a magnificent present, consisting of duplicates of 
these fossils, which the Society had received from Captain Cautley, 
and since that time other donations of great value have been trans- 
mitted by him to our museum. These Indian fossil bones belong 
to extinct species of herbivorous and carnivorous mammalia, and to 
reptiles of the genera crocodile, gavial, emys, and trionyx, and to 
several species of fish, with which shells of fresh-water genera are 
associated, the whole being entombed in a formation of sandstone, 
conglomerate, marl, and clay, in inclined stratification, composing 
a range of hills called the Siwalik, between the rivers Sutledge and 
Ganges. These hills rise to the height of from five hundred toa 
thousand feet above the adjacent plains, some of the loftiest peaks 
being three thousand feet above the level of the sea. 
Wher Captain Cautley and Dr. Falconer first discovered these 
remarkable remains their curiosity was awakened, and they felt con- 
vinced of their great scientific value; but they were not versed in 
fossil osteology, and being stationed on the remote confines of our 
Indian possessions, they were far distant from any living authorities 
or books on comparative anatomy to which they could refer. The 
manner in which they overcame these disadvantages, and the en- 
thusiasm with which they continued for years to prosecute their re- 
