348 FAUNA A5TIQUA SlYALENSIS. 



of breadth, however, is not so striking as in the measure- 

 ments of the muzzle before given ; although it still bears 

 ns out in the general expanded dimensions of the fossil 

 animal. 



Of the lower jaw the only comparative measurement that 

 our discoveries have enabled us to make is of a small portion 

 of the anterior extremity, showing an extreme contraction 

 and narrowness of the symphysis ; that of the fossil being 

 actually less than that of the existing 1 1 feet Crocodile. The 

 form of the suture is similar in each, and the internal process 

 equally well defined. 



rurther than from an inspection of the plates and descrip- 

 tion of the varieties of the Cayman and the Crocodile, in the 

 5th volume of the ' Ossemens Fossilcs,' I am unacquainted 

 with the form of any other head than that of the Crocodile 

 which inhabits the Ganges and Jumna rivers in this part of 

 India, and presume that I am correct in placing our existing 

 animal amongst the Crocodiles ' a deux arretes.' The pecu- 

 liarities of the skulls in my possession resemble those of this 

 species, although there is a point relating to the ridges 

 which may as well be noted, more especially as the same 

 feature is most prominently marked in the fossU, thereby 

 assimilating our existing and fossil animal still more closely to 

 each other. 



The ridges (in C. hiporcatus) are described as 'proceeding 

 from the anterior angle of the orbit and descending in almost 

 a parallel line along the muzzle, and gradually disappearing.' 

 In both the fossil and existing specimens now under descrip- 

 tion the above note applies distinctly, with this exception, 

 that the ridges partially disappear at a point half way on the 

 nasal bones, from whence they strike off in an oblique direction 

 right and left towards the alveoli of the 10th tooth, this 

 oblique ridge showing itself as prominently as that at the 

 anterior angle of the orbit. 



There is a general resemblance between the fossil and the 

 head of the existing Crocodile, which is striking. The 

 rugosities and position of inequalities on the upper surface 

 closely correspond; the cranial foramina, the number of 

 teeth, the foramina in the upper intermaxillary bones for 

 receiving the two front teeth of the lower jaw, the grooves 

 for the 4th teeth of the lower jaw, and the general form of 

 the nasal aperture, are features similar in both. We may 

 therefore fairly conclude from analogy that the Crocodile 

 now found fossil in the upper strata of the Sewaliks is of a 

 species closely allied to the present one, with the simple 

 difference of possessing greater width in its proportions : in 

 which view we must be satisfied with establishing it as a 



