INTRODUCTION. 



27 



we found the remains of such forms as the camel, giraffe, and 

 quadrumana with existing reptilia pouring in upon us, each 

 successive ascertained form appeared to indicate a nearer 

 and nearer approach to the human period ; and when we had 

 exhausted the list, the question used to arise, what shall we 

 find next ? — but man and his works were to the last wanting. 

 The Sewalik fauna was not merely surprisingly rich in species, 

 but equally so in the vast number of individuals which the 

 plains of ancient India subsisted. The collection of fossil 

 bones which Captain Cautley presented to the British Museum 

 amounted to 200 chests, averaging about a hundred-weight 

 each of contents. Another collection formed by myself was 

 nearly as extensive. Captains Baker and Durand, in April 

 1836, at an early stage of their collection, took the trouble of 

 tabulating the number of heads and jaws with teeth contained 

 among their fossils ; and the following are extracted from their 

 list. 



ELEPHANT AND 

 MASTODON. 



Fragments of upper 

 jaws and heads. 



110 



Lower jaws. 



101 



Mutilated frag- 

 ments of jaws, 



66 



HIPPOPOTAMUS. 



Crania and 

 upper jaws. 



46 



Lower jaws. 



63 



PACHYDERM ATA / 

 GENERALLY. \_ 



Upper jaws. 



222 



225 



RUMINANTS. 



143 



230 



Now when it is remembered that the aggregate collections 

 have been more than tenfold increased since, and that the 

 remains were either excavated or found in debris of cliffs, and 

 that the explored surface bears a very small j^roportion to that 

 which has not yet been investigated, one may form an esti- 

 mate of the prodigious number of animals which must have 

 lived together in the former plains of India, making every 

 allowance for the bones having accumulated during many 

 successive generations. 



Viewed as a whole, what designation are we to assign to 

 the Sewalik fauna ? The shell evidence is still to be worked 

 out ; but it has already been shown either that the majority 

 are identical with existing forms, or that there is a mixture 

 of recent species v/ith a series of extinct forms closely re- 

 presenting existing ones. The evidence from the vertebrate 

 animals is of a double character ; half of them are so like the 

 fauna which we now have in India, that they might pass for 

 the creatures of yesterday, while the other half represents the 



