OF THE NILE AND GANGES. 643 



observation. But I have seen perfect skulls of the species 

 from richly fossiliferous fluviatile deposits of Southern India. 



The second important species of the Doab alluvium is the 

 huge ruminant, Bos (Bubalus) Palceindicus, also characteristic 

 of the Nerbudda fossil fauna. This form is closely allied to 

 the existing wild Buffalo, or Amee of the Indian forests, 

 from which the domestic animal appears to have sprung. 

 Not a trace of it, or of any species of the same subgenus, has 

 yet been observed among the Sewalik fossil Mammalia ; nor 

 has its range in the fossiliferous beds of Southern India been 

 as yet accurately determined. But, in indicating these dis- 

 tinctions of the Miocene and Pliocene faunas, it is important 

 to remember that the rule is not absolute. 1 ascertained the 

 presence of the Miocene Proboscidean, E. (Stegodori) insignis, 

 of the Sewalik hills, among the Pliocene Mammalia of the 

 Nerbudda, where it was accompanied by a species of the 

 Miocene Hippopotamus, H. (Hexaprot.) Namadicus. The fossil 

 Buffalo here referred to existed in the same ISTerbudda fauna 

 along with a huge Taurine species, Bos ( TJrus) Namadicus, of 

 which no close representative has been discovered among the 

 existing Indian Bovidce. It differs alike from the Gour and 

 Gayal. Of it also no trace has been detected among the 

 Sewalik Mammalia. 



The third fossil species, Hippopotamus ' Palwindicus, is, 

 perhaps, the most important in its indications. It belongs 

 to the subgenus Tetraprotodon, characterized by four incisors, 

 like the two African living species, and the European fossil 

 species, H. major and H. Pentlandi; but it is essentially 

 distinguished by constantly having the middle incisors 

 smaller than the outer pair, being the converse of what 

 occurs in the other. ISTo well-authenticated case has as yet 

 been established of any fossil Tetraprotodon in Miocene strata. 

 A quadruped so remarkable for its size, form, and habits 

 must everywhere have forcibly impressed itself on the atten- 

 tion of mankind ; and, struck with the close resemblance of 

 the ISTerbudda fossil Buffalo to the existing species, the ques- 

 tion arose with me, May not this extinct Hippopotamus have 

 been a contemporary of man? and may not some reflection of 

 its former existence be detected in the extinct languages or 

 ancient traditions of India, as in the case of the gigantic 

 Tortoise ? Following up the inquiry I ascertained from the 

 profound Sanscrit scholar, Rajah Radhakanta Deva, that 

 the Hippopotamus of India is referred to under different 

 Sanscrit names of great antiquity, significant of ' Jala-Hasti,' 

 or ' Water-Elephant,' in the ' Amaracosha ' and ' Subda-rat- 

 navali.' This view is confirmed by the opinion of two great 

 Sanscrit scholars, Henry Colebrooke and H. H. Wilson. The 



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