PREFACE, 



ON the announcement of the death of De. Hugh Fal- 

 coner, on January 31, 1865, there was but one feeling 

 among men of science — that a master mind had passed 

 away, and left little behind of the vast amount of pa- 

 laiontological knowledge acquired during a period of 

 thirty years. Gifted with a memory rarely equalled, 

 to which he too often confided the results of his re- 

 searches, and having a natural aversion to publish his 

 views without thoroughly sifting every fact which could 

 be brought forward to corroborate or refute them, 

 there can be no doubt that the loss to science conse- 

 quent on his death is in a great measure irreparable. 

 For many years, however, Falconer had been in the 

 habit of noting down careful descriptions, with measure- 

 ments, of many specimens which he believed to elucidate 

 the subject of his investigations. The present work is 

 a collection of memoirs, some of which Avere published 

 during his lifetime, but many were not, together with 

 such passages from his Note-books as have appeared to 

 the Editor most important and complete. 



The work is divided into two volumes, of which the 

 first gives the results of the author's investigations on the 

 Fossil Zoology of the Sewalik Hills, and the second is 



