Xlvi PROCEEDINGS OE THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



must have been struck witli the vividness of his recollection of 

 scenes which he had visited many years before, as well as with the 

 sound and philosophical views which he then brought forward. 

 It was also chiefly owing to information obtained by him that we 

 are indebted for the introduction of the cultivation of tea into 

 India, as well as for that of the Cinchona plant. 



In 1837 Dr. Talconer accompanied Sir Alexander Burnes's 

 second mission to Cabool. During this expedition and in the fol- 

 lowing year he explored many parts of the Trans-Indus region and 

 Cashmere, and examined the great glaciers of the Mooztagh range 

 and of other regions, returning towards the end of 1838 to Su- 

 harunpoor, to resume his duties. 



In 1842 the state of his health compelled him to return to 

 England on sick leave, bringing with him the valuable natural- 

 history collections which he had made on his many exploratory 

 expeditions and during his residence in India. On his return 

 to England he occupied himself with the description and disposal 

 of his collections, most of which he presented to the India House 

 and the British Museum, to which national institution Capt. 

 Cautley had already presented his collection. To Dr. Falconer 

 was confided the charge of superintending their arrangement, the 

 result of which has been the formation of a collection of fossil 

 mammalian remains unequalled in any museum in the world. 



In conjunction with Capt. Cautley he communicated many 

 interesting and valuable papers respecting these fossil remains, 

 which were published at various times in the diiferent scientific 

 journals of the day. Amongst these was a discourse communi- 

 cated to the E-oyal Asiatic Society on the Eossil Eauna of the 

 Sewalik Hills. 



Our own Proceedings for 1844 contain a valuable paper by these 

 authors on some fossil remains of Anoplotherium and the Griraffe 

 from the Sewalik Hills in the North of India. In this paper they 

 allude to the remarkable mixture of extinct and recent forms 

 which constituted the ancient fauna of Northern India. With 

 regard to the remains of fossil Crocodiles, one species is considered 

 as identical with its recent analogue. They occur together with 

 extinct species of such modern types as Monkey, Camel, Antelope, 

 and Grirafl^e. The Anoplotherium, hitherto only found, as they 

 believe, in the older and middle Tertiaries of Europe, continued 

 in India to live down to a period when existing Indian Croco- 

 diles, and probably other recent forms had become inhabitants 

 of that region. In the following year Dr. Ealconer read before 

 the Society a paper on Dinotheriiun, Giraffe, and other Mammalia 

 from Perim Island in the Grulf of Cambay, including a description 

 of the remains of a new Euminant, the Bramatherium, allied to 

 the fossil Giraffe. One of the most interesting facts connected with 

 the Perim fossils is, that they belong to the same genera and 

 species as are found in the Sewalik Hills, and in the ossiferous 

 beds of the Irawaddi in Ava. But besides these the Perim 

 Island collection contains numerous remains of Mastodon^Elephant, 



