XCVUl PEOCEEDINGS OF THE 



mucli of the attention both of men of science and of the educated 

 classes generally, viz. the proofs of the remote antiquity of the 

 human race. In 1833, fossil bones procured from a great depth 

 in the ancient alluvium of the valley of the Granges in Hindostan 

 were erroneously figured and published as human. The subject 

 attracted considerable attention at the time in India. It was in 

 1835, while this interest was still fresh, that Dr. Falconer and 

 Capt. Cautley discovered the remains of the gigantic miocene 

 fossil tortoise of India, which by its colossal size almost realized 

 the mythological conception of the tortoise which sustained the 

 world on his back (G-eol. Trans. 2nd ser. vol. v. 1837, p. 499). 



About the same time several species of fossil Quadrumana were 

 discovered in the Sewalik Hills, one of which was thought to have 

 exceeded in size the Ourang-outang, whUe another was hardly 

 distinguishable by micrometrical measurements from the living 

 "Hoonuman" monkey of the Hindoos. Coupling these facts 

 with the occurrence of certain existing species, and of the camel, 

 girafi'e, horse, &c., in the Sewalik fauua, and with the further im- 

 portant fact that the plains of the valley of the Ganges had under- 

 gone no late submergence, and passed through no stage of glacial 

 refrigeration to interrupt the previous tranquil order of physical 

 conditions, Dr. Falconer and Capt. Cautley were so impressed with 

 the conviction that the human race might have been early in- 

 habitants of India, that they were constantly on the look-out for 

 the upturning of the relics of man, or of his works, from the 

 miocene strata of the Sewalik Hills. In their account of the 

 gigantic tortoise, after discussiug the palgeontologieal and mytho- 

 logical bearings of the case, they sum up by stating " the result at 

 which we have arrived is, that there are fair gi'ounds for entertain- 

 ing the belief that the Colossoclielys Atlas may have lived down to 

 an early epoch of the human period and become extinct since " 

 (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1844, p. 85). 



Ten years later Dr. Falconer resumed the subject in India, 

 while investigating the fossil remains of the Jumna. In May 

 1858, having the same inquiry in view, while occupied vsdth his 

 cave-researches, he communicated a letter to the Council of the 

 Greological Society, which suggested and led to the exploration of 

 the Brixham cave, and the discovery in it of flint implements of 

 great antiquity associated with the bones of extinct animals. In 

 conjunction with Professor Eamsay and Mr. Pengelly he drew up 

 a report on the subject, which, communicated in the autumn of 

 the same year to the Councils of the Eoyal and G-eological So- 



