CROCODILES. 351 



Ganges rivers, wliere the shingle and sand are the most 

 developed, their appearance is similar to what we might 

 imagine the beds of the present rivers to exhibit, were they 

 to undergo a similar convulsion. The presence of the fossils 

 has not been satisfactorily determined on the line between 

 the Jumna and Ganges ; those that have been already col- 

 lected in such great abundance are from the prolongation of 

 the same line between the Sutlej and the Jumna rivers. Up 

 to the present time they have generally been collected from 

 the slopes of the mountains, slij)s, water-courses, &c. They 

 have been dvig out near the village of Deoni, in the Nahun 

 Eajah's territory, but at this spot the position of the stratum 

 from which they were excavated was not satisfactorily deter- 

 mined. In the Ambwalla Pass, however, we had the satis- 

 faction of finding a large fragment of bone in situ, in a 

 stratum of sandstone rock, in the face, of a cliff, terminating 

 one of those tortuous little streams that drain the steep 

 slopes of the mountains into the main channel. The sand- 

 stone stratum in which this was found was inclined as usual 

 in an angle of from 20° to 30° ; and the position of the fossil 

 was perhaps 600 feet from the bed of the main river. In the 

 present state of the inquiry this fact is interesting, for it 

 appears that in the many slips that have been visited and 

 most carefully examined, no fossils have been found actually 

 in the rock, with the exception of the instances above 

 mentioned. The fossils are evidently not confined to the 

 sandstone ; the clays and clayey conglomerates have their 

 proportion also. 



Of the Crocodile of these strata I have attempted in the 

 preceding section to show, as far as measurements and my 

 limited means point out, that the main difference between 

 the fossil and the existing animal of the present rivers is in 

 the breadth ; a difference that might tend to an opinion of 

 its being allied to the Cayman, did not other more distinct 

 characters separate it at once from that sub-genus. In the 

 Gharial now under review I am unable to recognize any 

 difference from the living animal ; and there are certain 

 peculiarities about the external surface of the skull of the 

 existing Gharial, in slight indentations and rugosities, which 

 are singularly coincident with those of the fossil. The fol- 

 lowing measurements are taken from two recent skulls, one 

 of an animal 10 feet 5 inches long, and the other 8 feet 8 

 inches long ; and from a very perfect fossil skull with the beak 

 broken off, which is evidently the remain of a large animal. 



