SIVATHEEIUM GIGANTEUM. 265 



If the view wliich we liave taken of the fossil be correct, 

 the Sivatherium was a very remarkable animal, and it fills 

 np an important blank in the interval between the Eumuiantia 

 and Pachydermata, That it was a ruminant, the teeth and 

 horns most clearly establish ; and the structure which we have 

 inferred of the upper lip, the osteology of the face, and the 

 size and position of the orbit, approximate it to the Pachy- 

 dermata. The circumstance of anything approaching a pro- 

 boscis is so abnormal for a ruminant, that at the first view 

 it might raise a doubt regarding the correctness of the 

 ordinal position assigned to the fossil ; but when we inquire 

 further, the difficrdty ceases. 



In the Pachydermata there are genera with a trunk, and 

 others without a trace of it. This organ is, therefore, not 

 essential to the constitution of the order, but accidental to 

 the size of the head, or habits of the animal in certain genera. 

 Thus, in the Elephant nature has given a short neck to sup- 

 port the huge head, the enormous tusks, and the large grinding 

 apparatus of the animal ; and by such an arrangement, the 

 construction of the rest of the frame is saved frora the disturb- 

 ance which a long neck would have entailed. But as the 

 lever of the head became shortened, some other method of 

 reaching its food became necessary; and a trunk was appended 

 to the mouth. We have only to apply analogous conditions 

 to a ruminant, and a trunk is equally required. In fact, the 

 Camel exhibits a rudimentary form of this organ, under dif- 

 ferent circumstances. The upper lip is cleft ; each of the 

 divisions is separately moveable and extensible, so as to be 

 an excellent organ of touch. 



The fossil was discovered near the Murkunda river, in 

 one of the small v alleys which stretch between the Kyarda-dun 

 and the Valley of Pinjore in the Sewalik or Sub-Himalayan 

 belt of hills, associated with bones of the fossil Elephant, 

 Mastodon, Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, &e. So far as our 

 researches yet go, the Sivatherium was not numerous. 

 Compared with the Mastodon and Hippopotamus {H. 8iva- 

 lensis, INobis, a new species characterized by having six incisors 

 in either jaw) it was very rare. 



Northern Doab : September 15, 1835. 



