CAMEL. 245 



and estuaries of modern India, there can be no doubt, as far as the re- 

 searches in the Sewalik hills have exhibited proofs. 



As a fossil discovery, the camel is of great interest. Its position 

 with regard to the Pachydermata and Euminants is a link of a now- 

 broken chain. The Sivatherium was one, and Mr. Owen's Macrau- 

 chenia was another, to explain the mystery and add two links to a 

 broken series. That future discovery will tend still further to prove 

 the wisdom of design is an inference borne out by every succeeding 

 step in palfeontological research. 



Whether the camel has existed in an originally wild state in any 

 period within the historical era, is a question that has been argued at 

 considerable length. The animal in a state of domestication is spoken 

 of during the early period of the Scriptural writings, and by subsequent 

 authors at all periods of history. It is mentioned by Strabo and Dio- 

 dorus Siculus as having been found in a wild state in Arabia about 

 the commencement of the Christian era. 



Pallas, who argues on the evidence of the Tartars, that the wild camel 

 is found in Central Asia, is met by Cuvier in the well-known fact of 

 the Calmucks being in the habit of giving liberty to all sorts of animals 

 on religious jarinciples. The natives of Hindostan, who act in the same 

 way, and are guided by similar motives, have, in their affection for the 

 cow and ox, given rise to a race of Avild cattle perfectly distinct from 

 those of the forest. In the districts of Akbarpoor and Dostpoor, in the 

 province of Oude, large herds of black oxen are or were to be found, 

 in the wild and uncultivated tracts — a fact to which I can bear testi- 

 mony from my own personal observation, having, iu 1821, come in 

 contact with a very large herd of these beasts, of which we were only 

 fortunate enough to kill one, their excessive shyness and wildness 

 preventing us from a near approach at any second opportunity. The 

 wild horses of Southern America are another proof of the tendency of 

 animals to congregate in herds, and assume the character of originally 

 wild animals, although, properly, the offspring of domesticated cattle 

 set at liberty. The proof, however, after all, is merely in the possi- 

 biUty of domesticated animals being able to return again to a state of 

 nature, and assume the functions of their primitive designation. 



The object of this paper is merely to establish the fact of the camel 

 haying been found in a fossil state in the Sewalik hills, the identifi- 

 cation being more complete, perhaps, than that of any other of the 

 numerous genera and species which these hills have made us ac- 

 quainted with. Judging firom the number of the remains of this 

 family in oiu- collections, the camel could not have existed in great 

 abundance, and their proportion to the true Euminants must have been 

 comparatively small. 



NOETHBEN DoAB : 8cpt. 8, 1840. 



II- — Description by De. Falconer of Fossil Eemains of Camel in 

 Museum of Asiatic Society of Bengal. 



From Sewalik Hills. 



No. 595. Camelus Sivalensis. — Fragment of 7th cervical vertebra, 

 comprising the body, with the superior transverse processes attached ; 



