382 PROCEEDINGS OE THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [March 22, 



Tortoise ? Pollowing up the inquiry I ascertained from the profound 

 Sanscrit scholar, Eajah Eadhakanta Deva, that the Hippo'potamus 

 of India is referred to xinder different Sanscrit names of great an- 

 tiquity, significant of " Jald-Hasti," or " Water-Elephant," in the 

 " Amaracosha " and " Subdaratnavah." This view is confirmed by 

 the opinion of two great Sanscrit scholars, Henry Colebrooke and 

 H. H. Wilson. The former, in his annotations on the " Amaracosha," 

 interprets the words "Graha" and "Avahara" as meaning Hippo- 

 potamus ; " and the latter not only follows this version, but gives 

 two other words, 'Kariyadus' and 'Vidu,' which he supposes to 

 signify the same animal." It is therefore in the highest degree 

 probable, that the ancient inhabitants of India were familiar with 

 the Hippopotamus as a living animal ; and it is contrary to every 

 probability that this knowledge of it was drawn from the African 

 species, imported from Egypt or Abyssinia. Assuming that the 

 quadruped was a contemporary of Man in India, a very complex 

 question is involved, which is beyond the scope and limits of the 

 present communication, namely, the ancient vocables above referred 

 to as the groundwork of the argument being of Aryan derivation, Did 

 the Aryan immigrants see the animal living on the northern rivers 

 of India, or was their knowledge of it derived from the traditions 

 of the more ancient indigenous races whom they subjugated or dis- 

 placed ? After reflecting on the question, during many years, in its 

 palaeontological and ethnological bearings, my leaning is to the view 

 that Hippopotamus namadicus was extinct in India long before the 

 Aryan invasion, but that it was familiar to the earlier indigenous 

 races. I may add that remains of the species have nowhere as yet been 

 observed in recent or comparatively modern -deposits in India: they 

 have only been met with in a petrified condition, deep in the alluvium 

 of the Jumna, or in ancient deposits in the valley of the Nerbudda. 



3. Fossil MoUusca. — I have already stated that our information 

 regarding the MoUusca occurring in the ancient alluvium of the 

 Jumna is almost nil ; until lately, this would have applied to the 

 fossil shells of what I have designated throughout as the Pliocene 

 deposits of the valley of the Nerbudda. But the operations of the 

 Geological Survey of India have already extended to that district ; 

 and I have been favoured with a communication from Professor 

 Oldham, dated 8th January, 1858, in which he informs me that the 

 evidence as to the age of the formations is now becoming tolerably 

 conclusive. A large collection of shells, comprising a consider- 

 able assemblage of species and a great quantity of individuals, aU 

 proved to be of existing forms. 



But there was this remarkable in the group, that of many of the 

 commonest living species some were exceedingly rare, or even absent. 

 Of Planorhis coromandelianus, one of the most prevalent Indian spe- 

 cies, and abundant in the Nerbudda district, only two specimens 

 were found in the fossil state ; while of Melanidce, M, variahilis and 

 M. spimdosa, also common living forms, were not met with. The 

 species, none being marine, in all amoimted to twelve or thirteen. 

 In designating the formation as Pliocene^ which I have done during 



