XXXVlll 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



completion; but witliin three years there appeared nine 

 parts of the work, each containing twelve folio plates, ex- 

 ecuted in a style of lithography rarely, if ever, equalled. Mr. 

 Tord, the artist to whom the work was so much indebted, 

 bestowed in several instances as much as 180 hours upon a 

 single plate. No fewer than 1,123 specimens are figured in 

 these plates ; and of many specimens three, four, or five 

 different views are given. Besides the Sewalik fossils proper, 

 the ' Fauna Antiqua ' includes illustrations of a very valuable 

 and iuipoi-tant series of mammalian remains from the PUocene 

 deposits of the Valley of the Nerbudda, together with illus- 

 trations of the Miocene fauna of the Irrawaddi and of Perim 

 Island in the Gulf of Cambay. The descriptive letter-press 

 unfortunately did not keej) pace with the plates. After a little 

 progress. Dr. Falconer ' found that the labour in comparing 

 and identifying the enormous mass of materials was so great 

 and the references to be consulted so numerous, that, if he 

 had given up his time to the letter-press, he would have 

 been unable to finish the preparation and arrangement of 

 the collection in the British Museum during the period 

 within which his stay in England was, by the rules of the 

 Indian service, peremptorily limited.' In December, 1847, he 

 was compelled to retiirn to India, where he found it impos- 

 sible to continue the work, as he had hoped, at a distance 

 from the specimens. On his return to England in 1855, 

 many of the unpublished plates ' had been erased from the 

 stones on which they had been drawn, and many of the 

 original subscribers were dead, so that the work could 

 only have been continued under extraordinary difficulties. 

 It was Dr. Falconer's intention, nevertheless, to have com- 

 pleted it, and in October 1856, he applied to the Trus- 

 tees of the British Museum for accommodation and access 

 to the specimens, to enable him to carry out this object. 

 Bad health, however, which compelled him to seek a warmer 

 climate, and his ambition to master every detail con- 

 nected with the fossil mammalian fauna of Europe, before 

 proceeding to generalize on that of the Sewalik Hills, caused 

 him to postpone its execution until it was too late. To collect 



' Proof copies of seventeen of these 

 plates, together 'with outline tracings for 

 the reruaiuiiig plates of the work, have 



been deposited in the Library of the 

 British Musexun. (See vol, i. pp. 538, 

 554.) 



