509 



disappointment when, from various accidents, these vohimes failed 

 to arrive. The delay perhaps was fortunate, for being thrown en- 

 tirely upon their own resources, they soon found a museum of com- 

 parative anatomy in the surrounding plains, hills, and jungles, where 

 they slew the wild tigers, bufFalos, antelopes, and other Indian qua- 

 drupeds, of which they preserved the skeletons, besides obtaining 

 specimens of all the genera of reptiles which inhabited that region. 

 They were compelled to see and think for themselves while com- 

 paring and discriminating the different recent and fossil bones, and 

 reasoning on the laws of comparative osteology, till at length they 

 were fully prepared to appreciate the lessons which they were 

 taught by the works of Cuvier. In the course of their labours they 

 have ascertained the existence of the elephant, mastodon, rhinoceros, 

 hippopotamus, ox, buffalo, elk, antelope, deer, and other herbi- 

 vorous genera, besides several canine and feline carnivora. On some 

 of these Dr. Falconer and Captain Cautley have each written sepa- 

 rate and independent memoirs. Captain Cautley, for example, is the 

 author of an article in the Journal of the Asiatic Society, in which he 

 shows that two of the species of mastodon described by Mr. Clift 

 are, in fact, one, the supposed difference in character having been 

 drawn from the teeth of the young and adult of the same species. I 

 ought to remind you that this same gentleman was the discoverer, 

 in 1833, of the Indian Herculaneum or buried town near Behat, 

 north of Seharunpore, which he found seventeen feet below the sur- 

 face of the country when directing the excavation of the Doab Canal*. 

 But I ought more particularly to invite your attention to the 

 joint paper by Dr. Falconer and Captain Cautley on the Sivatherium, 

 a new and extraordinary species of mammalia, which they have mi- 

 nutely described and figured, offering at the same time many pro- 

 found speculations on its probable anatomical relations. The cha- 

 racters of this genus are drawn from a head almost complete, found 

 at first enveloped in a mass of hard stone, which had lain as a 

 boulder in a water-course, but after much labour the covering of 

 stone was successfully removed, and the huge head now stands out 

 with its two horns in relief, the nasal bones being projected in a 

 free arch, and the molars on both sides of the jaw being singularly 



* Journ, of Asiatic Society, Nos. xxv. and xxix. 1834. Principles of 

 Geology, 4th and subsequent editions. See Index, Behat. 



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