C42 



ANCIENT FLUVIATILE DEPOSITS 



The great majority of the bones were well fossilized, and 

 in most cases petrified. 1 Species of the following genera were 

 determined : — JSUphas, Hippopotamus, Sus, Equus, Bos, Cervus, 

 Antilope, small Rodents, Gavialis Gangeticus, and freshwater 

 Chelonians. The specimens were commonly too mutilated, 

 and the materials then available for comparison too defective, 

 for certain specific determination in all cases : but among 

 them I identified molars of the extinct Elephas Namadicus ; 

 a lower jaw with teeth, and a perfect astragalus, of the true 

 Indian Hippopotamus, H. (Tetraprotodon) Palceindicus ; a 

 fragment of a jaw of the great fossil Buffalo of the Nerbudda, 

 Bos (Bubalus) Palceindicus; and jaws undistinguishable from 

 those of the living Gharial Crocodile. Both Captain Smith 

 and Mr. Dean, aided by medical officers more or less versed 

 in anatomy, thought that they had encountered human 

 bones among the Jumna fossils ; and this opinion was pub- 

 lished at the time in an Indian scientific journal ; but the 

 identifications were negatived by Dr. Pearson and Dr. Evans, 

 the curators of the Museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal ; 

 and on submitting the specimens to a close examination 

 several years afterwards, I could discover no determinable 

 human bones among them. 



Another observation was made by Captain Smith, upon 

 which he was professionally competent to give an opinion 

 with authority — namely, that some of the fossil bones ' were 

 dug from depths of 6 to 18 inches in the firm shoal, which is 

 composed of substances {sic), kankar, bricks (vitrified clay?), 

 more or less rolled and cemented by mud and clay. The cir- 

 cumstance is explicable on the modern accretion of some of 

 the kankar shoals above referred to, without involving a great 

 antiquity to the fragments of burnt clay.' 



Of the fossil genera above named there are three well- 

 determined species, which are of much significance in the 

 history of the Doab alluvia. The first is Elephas Namadicus, 

 an extinct form characteristic of the Pliocene fauna of the 

 Nerbudda. It belongs to the same group, Euelephas, as the 

 existing Indian Elej:>hant ; bxit it is broadly distinguished 

 from that species, and from all other known species, by a very 

 marked peculiarity in the form of the cranium, in addition to 

 dental and Other characters. Among the vast quantity of 

 Miocene Proboscidean remains yielded by the Sewalik hills 

 not a trace of Elephas Namadicus has ever come under my 



1 Mr.'James^Prinsep examined one of 

 the fossil bones of the Jumna, which on 

 a rough analysis yielded the following 

 results : — 



Phosphate and carbonate of lime 17'5 



Water 6-0 



Red oxide of iron with alumina 76'5 



100-0 



