INTRODUCTION". 29 



tlirougli a period corresponding to several terms of the ter- 

 tiary period in Europe. 



"Kie continent of India, at an early period of the tertiary 

 epoch, appears to have been a large island, situated in a bight 

 formed by the Himalayahs and Hindoo Koosh ranges. The 

 valleys of the Ganges and Indus formed a long estuary, into 

 which the drainage of the Himalayahs poured its silt and 

 alluvium. An upheavement took place, which converted these 

 straits into the plains of India, connecting them with the 

 ancient island, and forming the existing continent. The 

 Sewalik fauna then spread over the continent from the Irra- 

 waddi to the mouths of the Indiis, two thousand miles ; and 

 northwest to the Jhelum, fifteen hundred miles. After a long- 

 interval of repose, another great upheavement followed, which 

 threw up a strip of the plains of India, forming the Sewalik 

 hills, and increased the elevation of the Himalayahs by many 

 thousand feet. This event, and the climatal changes which 

 it involved, caused the extinction of the Tibetian and Sewalik 

 faunas. As a result of the climatal changes implicated in 

 these upheavements, it may be inferred that India is now 

 enjoying 'the summer of the great cycle ;' and that, in contrast 

 with what has taken place in Etirope, there has been no de- 

 crease of temperature in that country, which has now as warm 

 a climate, if not warmer, than it ever had during any part of 

 the tertiary period. (See Plate II.) 



