FOSSIL EHINOCEEOS OF TIBET. 



173 



VII. ON" THE FOSSIL EHINOCEEOS OF CENTEAL 

 TIBET AND ITS EELATION TO THE EECENT 

 UPHEAVAL OF THE HIMALAYAHS.' 



BY H. FALCONER, M.D. 



That fossil bones occur on the Hioondes or elevated plain of 

 Tibet, at the northern face of the Himalayahs behind the 

 sources of the Ganges has long been well known. They are 

 brought to Almorah by the Bhoteah merchants, and sold as 

 talismans or charms under the name of 'Bijli ki har ' lightning 

 bones ; ammonites, from the crests of the neighbouring 

 snowy passes, called ' Chakar futteer ' and venerated all over 

 Hindostan as the sacred Salagram, are generally found 

 mixed up with them. The occurrence of these organic 

 mammiferous remains appears to have been first established 

 by Captain Webb and Mr, Traill ; but little or no attention 

 has yet been paid to the determination of the species, the 

 circumstances under which they are found, or the general 

 results lo which they lead. 



Some of these fossils belong to a large species of Ehinoceros, 

 others to a bovine ruminant, as large as the Indian wild 

 buffalo ; and when it is remembered that the bed of the Sutlej, 

 where it flows through the Hioondes or Steppe of Chang- tang 

 at a lower level than the situation of the stratum in which 

 the bones are found, is elevated 15,000 feet above the sea, 

 and that the natural vegetation at present hardly anywhere 

 attains the size of a shrub — not to mention the Polar 

 severity of the climate — it will at once be seen that the case 

 involves important considerations regarding the physical 

 changes which must have taken place in this part of the 

 Himalayahs since the Ehinoceros remains were entombed in 

 the stratum where they are now met with. But to give any 

 value to the results, it is necessary that all the facts of the 

 case be subjected to a rigid investigation. 



' This interesting paper, which was 

 probably written about the year 1839, 

 is now for the first time published. 

 Fragments of bones of fossil Ehinoceros 



and Equus, from the Niti Pass, are to 

 be found in the British Museum, and 

 are figured in the Fauna Antiqua Siva- 

 lensis, Plates Ixxvi. and Ixxxiv. — [Ed.] 



