1865.] FALCONER — NILE AND GANGES. 381 



Icankar, bricks (vitrified clay ?), more or less rolled and cemented by 

 mud and clay. The circumstance is explicable on the modern ac- 

 cretion 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 character- 

 istic of the Pliocene fauna of the Nerbudda. It belongs to the same 

 group, Emlejplias, as the existing Indian Elephant ; but 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 adcUtion to 

 dental and other characters. Among the vast quantity of Miocene 

 Proboscidian remains yielded by the Sewalik Hills not a trace of 

 Eleplias namadicus has ever come under my 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 Ner- 

 budda fossil fauna. This form is closely alhed to the existing wild 

 Buff'alo, or Arnee 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 indi- 

 cating these distinctions of the Miocene and Pliocene faunas, it is 

 important to remember that the rule is not absolute. I ascertained 

 the presence of the Miocene Proboscidian, E. (Stegodon) insignis, 

 of the Sewalik Hills, among the Pliocene Mammalia of the Nerbudda, 

 where it was accompanied by a species of the Miocene Hexaprotodon, 

 H. (Hexaprot.) namadicus. The fossil Bufii'alo here referred to 

 existed in the same Nerbudda fauna along with a huge taurine 

 species. Bos {Urus) namadicus, of which no close representative has 

 been discovered among the existing Indian Bovidae. It diffei'S alike 

 from the Gaiir and Oayal. Of it also no trace has been detected 

 among the Sewalik Mammalia. 



The third fossil species, Hippopotamus palceindicus, is, perhaps, the 

 most important in its indications. It belongs to the subgenus Te- 

 traprotodon, characterized by four incisors, like the two African living 

 species, and the European fossil species H. major and H. Pent- 

 landi ; 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. No 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 every- 

 where have forcibly impressed itself on the attention of mankind ; 

 and, struck with the close resemblance of the Nerbudda fossil Buff'alo 

 to the existing species, the question arose with me. May not this 

 extinct Hippopotamv^s have been a cotemporary of Man? and may 

 not some reflexion of its former existence be detected in the extinct 

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



VOL. XXI. PAET I. 2 b 



