244 



FAUNA ANTIQUA SIVALENSIS. 



London, extracted from the lower beds of the Sewalik strata, as well as 

 from the sandstone rock. Numerous other specimens of the same 

 tamily have also been sent to England, the more perfect remains of 

 crania being still in our possession, although ultimately intended for 

 the British Museum. 



The most valuable remains of Camelidce which have as yet been dis- 

 covered in these hills, and which were figured in the 'Transactions of 

 the Bengal Asiatic Society,' were dug out in 7ny presence. The stratum 

 in which they were found consisted of a sandy clay, inclined at an 

 angle to the horizon of about 20° ; the position being about half a mile 

 north-east of the village of Moginund, which lies at the foot of the 

 range, and the elevation about 400 or 500 feet above that village. 

 These fossils wei'e removed by a working party over whom I was 

 standing, and taken to my camp immediately afterwards. There can 

 be no demurrer on their being fossil remains, for even had they not 

 been exhumed before me, their state of fossilization is a proof of their 

 not having belonged to the existing family ; and the position in which 

 I found them was such that, laying aside their being a part of an in- 

 clined stratum of rock, no camel of the present day, at least, could 

 have reached such an awkward locality, the excavation having taken 

 place at the head of a deep ravine, terminating in a slip, in a wild pre- 

 cipitous region, far away from the habitation of man, and far removed 

 from even the grazing ground of village cattle. 



In the paper above referred to, certain specific differences are noted 

 between the fossil and existing camel, which, a foiiiori, establish the 

 discovery of the animal in the former state. As tliese appear to have 

 been overlooked by Lord Brougham, I will, in referring your readers 

 to the memoir in question, note that the most remarkable points of 

 dissimilitude were in that portion of the cranium connected with the 

 lower jaw, the breadth between the articulating or glenoid surfaces 

 for the condyles of the latter being much greater than that in the 

 animal now existing — a peculiarity not confined to one solitary spe- 

 cimen, but common to others, amongst which was a very perfect 

 cranium of a second species, for which we proposed the name of C. 

 antiqims, procured from the sandstone strata. With the marked dif- 

 ference above alluded to, it was natural to expect some modification in 

 form to the condyles and rami of the lower jaw. In this we were not 

 disappointed. The obliquity of the ascending branches similar to that 

 of the ox, their form, and the excess of transverse diameter of the con- 

 dyle, were points of great difference between the fossil and living 

 animal, and in total corresjDondence with the joeculiarities of the cranium. 

 It will be observed that the difference of structure in the skull is by no 

 ineans of trifling importance, and, as far as the subject of this paper is 

 concerned, is evidence that the bones found by us could never have 

 been the remains of the animals now existing in India. ^ 



That the camel lived at the same time with the Sivatherium, Anoplo- 

 therium, Simla, Hippopotamus, Khinocei'os, and with the very proto- 

 type of the Crocodiles and Garials now abounding in the great rivers 



' At the lower extremity of the meta- 

 tarsals and metacarpals the cleft appears 

 to be somewhat less in the fossil than 

 in the existing camel ; in the latter the 



separation of the points of articulation 

 is somewhat greater, a remark drawn 

 from an inspection of a gi-eat number of 

 fossil remains of this part of the animal. 



