26 FAUXA ANTIQUA SIVALEKSIS. 



and tlie hippopotamus as strictly confined to tlie African 

 continent. But the head-qnarters and force of these genera 

 appear to have been formerly in India. In short, it would 

 seem as if all the geographical divisions of the old continent, 

 and all the epochs, from the Eocene downwards, had contri- 

 buted their representatives to constitute one vast and com- 

 prehensive fauna in ancient India. 



The next striking point is the peculiarity of type and 

 number of transitionary forms which run as a general feature 

 throuo-h the Sewalik fauna. The mastodons and elephants 

 pass into each other through intermediate species. The 

 hippopotami have the full complement of incisive teeth, and 

 the same is indicated in regard to forms allied to rhinoceros. 

 The Hycenarctos is the most abnormal in its dentition of any 

 kuovni ursine form. The Enhydrioclon was a Lutrine animal, 

 the size of a panther: while the Colossochehjs tortoise was 

 a prodigy of size in its order. 



In regard to the nature of the species, in so far as the 

 evidence has yet been worked out among the mammifers, aU 

 the ascertained species have turned out to be extinct, and in 

 almost every instance different from those known elsewhere 

 in the fossil state. But I put forward this statement with 

 the reservation that the evidence has not in every case been 

 complete enough to be decisive, and that in several instances 

 the fossil forms make the closest approach to species now 

 living in India. This is the case with several of the carni- 

 vora ; while the teeth of one of the species- of giraffe comes 

 so near those of the existing African species in size and 

 form as to be indistinguishable. The Sewalik reptilia, on, the 

 other hand, exhibit a mixture of recent and extinct species. 

 The same appears to be the case with the fish ; but in this 

 order the evidence has not yet been gone into sufficiently to 

 justify pronouncing with any confidence. In regard to the 

 mollusca, which are regarded as the main evidence for deter- 

 mining the age of geological formations, the sj)ecies belong 

 to land and freshwater genera now common in India. Mr. 

 Benson, our best authority on Indian shells, considered 

 the most, if not the whole, of them as identical with existing 

 species. They are now in the hands of my distinguished 

 friend Professor Forbes, by whom they wiU soon be carefully 

 worked out. I am permitted to say that he has already been 

 able to identify some of the species with existing forms. 



Nothing approaching human remains or industrial monu- 

 ments has ever been met with among the Sewalik fossils col- 

 lected along a line of 360 miles, thus confirming what the 

 evidence derived from all sources goes to show, the late origin 

 and very modern advent of man into the system. Yet when 



I 



