FOSSILS FEOM PEKIM ISLAND. 403 



tlie geograpliical divisions of the old continent grouped to- 

 gether into one comprehensive fauna in the countries along 

 the valley of the Ganges. The Dinotherium of the miocene 

 period of Europe was, till now, a notable exception ; but the 

 fossil described in the preceding pages shows that ancient 

 India was not without a representative of this most remark- 

 able genus. In addition to most of the known types of 

 Ruminants we have now evidence that the same country had, 

 in the Sivatherium and Bramatherium, at least two colossal 

 forms of this order. 



In regard to the precise determination of the age of the 

 ossiferous deposits of India, the problem still remains to be 

 solved. The western coast of the peninsula will, in all pro- 

 bability, furnish the most certain and numerous data for its 

 solution ; as we may expect there to find deposits and organic 

 contents corresponding to the numerous alternations of up- 

 heavement and submergence which the land on that side of 

 the continent has undergone. Fossil remains of Elephant, 

 Hippopotamus, Equus, &c., were discovered by Dr. Spils- 

 bury,^ in the valley of the Nerbudda, near Jubbulpoor, in a 

 bed of limestone capped by a thick mass of basalt, and traces 

 of mammiferous remains have been found in other parts of 

 the basaltic district of central India. Extensive lacustrine 

 deposits disrupted and altered by the same igneous rock have 

 been met with over a wide extent of the Deccan, containing 

 the same species of Paludina, Physa, Liinnea, Unio, and 

 Cypris.^ 



Eeasoning from these facts, Dr. Malcolmson was led to the 

 inference ' that the part of the Vindhya range near Mandoo 

 was elevated during the same comparatively recent epoch as 

 the Sichel hills, between the Godavery and Tapti, the Ga- 

 wulgurh range, and the Satpoora mountains, south of the Ner- 

 budda.' He adds also the following startling generalization: 

 ' Over all these tracts, then, I am justified in believing that 

 at one time extensive lakes and marshy plains existed, full 

 of the ordinary forms of lacustrine life. The precipitous 

 and thirsty moiuitain ranges which intersect India, and which 

 now rise bare and burnt up in inaccessible cliffs, which for 

 months of every year hardly afford water for the birds of the 

 air, must then have exhibited vast plains, full of freshwater 

 lakes and marshes, on the muddy shores of which multitudes 

 of gavials, crocodiles, and tortoises must have preyed ; and 

 amidst the rank luxuriance of the bordering vegetation the 

 Mastodons, Hippopotami, Bisons, and Sivatheria, must have 



' Jour. Asiat. Soc. of Bengal, vol. ii. 1 ^ Malcolmson, Geol. Trans., series 2, 

 p. 583. 1 vol. V. p. 570. 



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