INTRODUCTION. " 



Henry Colebrooke, by whom they were sent to Europe. They 

 are referred to in Dr. Biickland's ' Reliquiae Diluvianse,' but 

 no detailed account of them has yet been published. The 

 very important inferences connected with these remains in 

 regard to the elevation of the Himalayahs will be noticed 

 hereafter. 



The next notice of fossil remains in India was by Mr. 

 Crawfurd, who during his embassy to Ava, in 1826, dis- 

 covered a deposit of silicified bones of large animals along 

 the banks of the Irrawaddi, consisting of remains of Masto- 

 don, Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, Crocodiles, Deer, and other 

 animals. Such of the species as admitted of identification 

 were described by Mr. Clift in the ' Geological Transactions,' 

 and attracted great interest at the time. Mr. Clift established 

 the important fact of the former existence of two species of 

 Mastodon peculiar to India. 



The next discovery of fossil bones was made by Captain 

 Cautley and myself, in 1831, in that range of tertiary hills 

 skirting the foot of the Himalayahs, to which we have applied 

 the name of Sewalik hills. ^ They were at first found spar- 

 ingly, but in increasing numbers up to 1834, when through 

 information supplied by a native rajah. Lieutenants Baker 

 and Durand were guided to a tract where they were found in 

 the utmost abundance near the sources of the Sursooti river. 

 Early in the investigation, in 1835, an account was published 

 of a very remarkable animal, called the Sivatherium, which 

 awakened attention to the subject in India generally ; and 

 similar remains were found in the valley of the Nerbudda by 

 Dr. Spilsbury, and in Perim Island in the Gulf of Cambay by 

 Dr. Lush and Lieut. EuUjames. It is interesting to keep these 

 facts in mind, as Perim Island, the Irrawaddi, and the western 

 part of the Sewalik hiUs, form as it were three points in a 

 great triangle spread over the whole width of India, showing 

 that the same ancient race of animals formerly extended over 

 the continent. 



' MSS. note written by Dr. Falconer, 

 in 1832. 'Fossil bones were first dis- 

 covered by Lt. Cautley. He met with 

 a single piece whieli was so imperfect 

 that he did not imagine it to be a por- 

 tion of animal remains. On going to 

 the locality some years afterwards. I 

 met with a few fragments which satis- 

 fied me of the existence of fossil bones 

 in the lower hill formation. They con- 

 sisted of portions of a testudinoiis shell, 

 a vertebra of one of the reptilia, &c. I 

 met also with some laminar pieces of 

 crystalline carbonate of lime, simulating 

 greatly the appearance of a compressed 



bivalve shell, which subsequent examina- 

 tion proved them not to be. A slight 

 notice of the circumstance was given by 

 Dr. Koyle in the Journal of the Asiatic 

 Society (vol. i. p. 96). The fragments 

 up to this date were so imperfect, that 

 little beyond conjecture could be made 

 out of them, but during last cold weather, 

 on a visit to the Timli pass, I found a 

 fragment of a well-marked testudinous 

 remain, and since then Lt. Cautley has 

 been so fortunate as to discover several 

 other portions of bone, which set the 

 matter at rest' — [Ed]. 



