366 FAUNA ANTIQUA SIVALENSIS. 



covered by us in 1835 in the tertiary strata of the Sewalik 

 hills, or Sub-Himalayahs skirting the southern foot of 

 the great Himalayah chain. They were found associated 

 with the remains of four extinct species of Mastodon and 

 Elephant, species of Ehinoceros, Hippopotamus, Horse, 

 Anoplotherium, Camel, Giraffe, Sivatherium, and a vast 

 number of other Mammalia, including four or five species of 

 Quadrumana. The Sewalik fauna included also a great 

 number of reptilian forms, such as crocodUes and land and 

 freshwater tortoises. Some of the crocodiles belong to extinct 

 species, but others appear to be absolutely identical with 

 species now livuig in the rivers of India : we allude in par- 

 ticular to the Crocodilus longirostris or Gharial (Gavial), from 

 the existing forms of which we have been unable to detect any 

 difference hi heads dug out of the Sewalik hills. The same 

 result api^lies to the existing Emys tecta, now a common 

 species found in all parts of India. A very perfect fossil 

 specimen, presenting the greater part of the evidence of the 

 dermal scutes, is imdistinguishable from the living forms, 

 not varying more from these than they do among each other. 

 Professor T. BeU, the highest living authority on the family, 

 after a rigid examination, confirms the result at which we 

 had arrived, that there are no characters shown by the fossil 

 to justify its separation from the living Emys tecta. There 

 are other cases which appear to yield similar results, but the 

 evidence has not yet been sufficiently examined to justify a 

 confident affirmation of the identity at present. 



The remains of the Colossochehjs were collected, during a 

 period of eight or nine years, along a range of eighty miles 

 of hilly comitry; they belong in consequence to a great 

 number of different animals, varying in size and age. From 

 the circumstances under which they are met with, in crushed 

 fragments, contained in elevated strata which have under- 

 gone great disturbance, there is little room for hope that a 

 perfect shell, or anything approaching a complete skeleton, 

 will ever be found in the Sewalik hiUs. It is to be men- 

 tioned, however, that remains of many of the animals asso- 

 ciated with the Colossochelys in the Sewalik hUls have been dis- 

 covered along the banks of the Irrawaddi in Ava, and in Perim 

 Island in the Gulf of Cambay, showing that the same extinct 

 fauna was formerly spread over the whole contment of India. 



This is not the place to enter upon the geological ques- 

 tion of the age of the Sewalik strata ; suffice it to say, that 

 the general bearing of the evidence is that they belong to 

 the newer tertiary period. But another question arises : 

 'Are there any indications as to when this gigantic tortoise 

 became extinct? or are there grounds for entertaining the 



