350 



FAUNA ANTIQUA SIVALENSIS. 



Large as the fossil may appear, the animal to which it 

 belonged did not in all probability exceed 25 feet in length, 

 whereas the Gangetic Crocodile of the present day is said to 

 arrive at the enormous length of 30 feet, and in the pages of 

 the ' Calcutta Journal ' an animal of 28 feet long is recorded 

 as having been killed by a gentleman of the Civil Service (I 

 believe) now residing in Calcutta. 



The Fossil G-hakial of the Sewalik Hills. 



Amongst the numerous remains of the Crocodilean Saurians 

 which have been found in such abundance, from the oolite 

 up to the more recent strata, it would appear that the 

 greatest proportion has been allied to the Gharial,' and that 

 the existing Crocodile and Cayman have been almost without 

 their prototypes. It is only in the strata above the chalk'' at 

 Montmartre, and the freshwater -formation at Argenton, 

 where remains have been found which were considered by 

 Cuvier as appertaining to the latter sub-genera; in these 

 strata, however, the remains of animals of this description 

 are scarce, and in those stUl more superficial abounding in 

 the remains of the larger mammalia, in Mastodons, Hippo- 

 potami, &c., where we might naturally expect to find the 

 Crocodile, the remains of this family have hardly I believe 

 been foiuid at all. 



Of the fossil Crocodile brought by Cravrfiird and Wallich 

 from Ava, and figured in the London Geological Society's 

 ' Transactions,' the drawings show a much nearer approach 

 to the living congenera than had, up to the period of that 

 discovery, been found ; and although we are unacquainted 

 with the geology of the country from which they were 

 brought, the new varieties of the Mastodons, which appear 

 to be common both to the Sewaliks and the Irrawaddi 

 deposits, may establish an identity between the two forma- 

 tions. 



In the Sewaliks we have upheaved alluvium, or debris 

 from the great Himalayahs upheaved at a considerable 

 angle; at those points especially between the Jumna and 



' The French mode of ■writing this 

 ■word, Gavial, a.ip'penrs to hare originated 

 in a misreading of the manuscript of 

 some naturalist; the r and v being 

 nearly similar in form. As Gharial is 

 the correct native name, there seems no 

 reason for perpetuating the misnomer. — 

 J. Prinsep. Sec. As. Soc. 



^ In the London clay the remains of 

 either the true Crocodile or Cayman 

 ■with the concavo-convex vertebra are 

 said to have been found, the species 

 allied to C. a museau aigu, vide Parkin- 

 son Int. Org. Rem. p. 387, and also the 

 head of an Alligator in the London clay 

 of the Isle of Sheppey, found in 1832. 



