1865,] FALCONER — NILE AND GANGES. 387 



dicated that the superficial strata there were of local origin, and 

 the result of tranquil sedimentary deposition. Viewed in the light 

 of a strictly physical inquiry, the chief rational argument in support 

 of the ojpinion that the advent of man upon the earth dates from a 

 very modern epoch was, first, the negative evidence in the non-oc- 

 currence of human relics, and next in the fact that, taking him in 

 conjunction with the mammals with whom he is now associated, 

 they appeared, as a group, to belong to a new order of things, strik- 

 ingly difi^erent from that of the immediately preceding period. The 

 Mammoth, the wool-clad Rhinoceros, the Cave Lions and Spelean 

 Hyeenas, the Irish Elk, &c., of the European Fauna were all extinct, 

 although the carcases of some of them had been discovered, under 

 favourable circumstances, in the most perfect state of preservation. 

 Eacts of corresponding import were yielded, by a glance cast upon 

 the latest palaeontology of the American continent. There also the 

 huge extinct Edentata, the Mammoth and the Mastodon, indicated 

 a different order of life, specifically, from that now existing. But 

 in India the problem presented itself under another aspect. There, 

 no break was visible in the tranquil succession of deposits, — no 

 interference of a general oceanic submergence, followed by incohe- 

 rent beds of sand and gravel, — no intercalation of glacial phenomena 

 to disturb the previous system. The present physical order of 

 things, modified only by alterations of level, by upheavements and 

 depressions, could be traced back in an unbroken chain, to the ossi- 

 ferous strata of the valley of the Nerbudda, and of the Sewalik 

 Hills. Results in harmony with these indications were yielded by 

 a retrospect cast upon the system of organized life. The Mastodons, 

 the Stegodons, and the Loxodont Elephants were extinct, as were 

 also the SivatJierimn, the Chalicotherium, the three-toed Hipparion- 

 Horse, the Heccaprotodon, the Merycopotamus, and other peculiar 

 forms. But they were found associated, in the same Sewalik deposits, 

 with species of true Equus, of Camel, and of Giraflie, the two last 

 being characteristic cotemporaries of Man at the present time. That 

 the actual order of the present system of life had begun during the 

 Sewalik period was indicated by the living Ghavial Crocodile and 

 Emys tectum, referred to in the above extract as being found asso- 

 ciated with the extinct MammaKan forms. And of the latter, some, 

 like Sterjodon insignis, accompanied by a species of Heccaprotodon, 

 descended to the Pliocene period of the Nerbudda fauna, to be as- 

 sociated with a true taurine Ox, and with a Buffalo which hardly 

 appears to differ more from the living Arnee, than does the ancient 

 Bison prisGus from the living Aurochs. Another fact chimed in 

 with especial force. Among the four or five species of Sewalik 

 Quadrumana distinguished by us, one was inferred by Sir Proby 

 Cautley and myself, in 1837, to have been a large Ape, exceeding 

 the size of the Orang-Utan, but of unknown immediate affinity. 

 The opinion was founded upon a canine tooth of an old animal, which 

 is figured and described in the ' Journal of the Asiatic Society of 

 Bengal'*. Five years afterwards, in 1842, 1 instituted a close com- 

 ^ Vol. vi. p. 359, pi. 18. fig. C. 



