1883.] J. Cockburn — On the recent existence of Rhinoceros indicus. 57 



resemble the conditions under which Mr. Foote's B. decannensis was 

 found. 



Immediately below the rhinoceros bones was a hard stratum, 4 feet 

 thick, which has yielded bones of Bos, Equus, Portaoc, and antelope.* 

 The rhinoceros bones were slightly impregnated with mineral matter and 

 studded with small nodules of kankar but not sufficiently so to imply 

 any great antiquity. Other fossil bones picked up in tliese ravines are 

 very highly impregnated with mineral matter possibly with a ferric base. 

 Within 4 feet of the rhinoceros bones 1 picked up several chert and shell 

 knives on the surface of the soil. 



A molar of Rhinoceros indicus considered recent was obtained by 

 Mr. Bruce Foote in the alluvium of Madras and is remarked on b}" Mr. 

 Lydekker as " very interesting as showing the former range of that species 

 far to the south of its present habitat, which Jerdon gives as the Terai 

 from Bhotan to Nepal." (J. A. S. B. Part II for 1880, page 32.) 



Carefully weighing the facts I came to the conclusion that these re- 

 mains were not necessarily very ancient, and the split bones and shell and 

 chert implements were evidence to my mind that the animal had been 

 killed and cut up by savage man, at no remote period. Recently, (October 

 1881,) when asked by R. A. Sterndale, Esq., to contribute a chapter on 

 Ehinoceros for his forthcoming work — " A Popular Natural History of the 

 Mammalia" — describing B,. indicus I wrote as follows : 



" It is probable that this Rhinoceros was found throughout the plains 

 of the North Western Provinces in unreclaimed spots as late as the fifth 

 or sixth century." 



According to the observations of Dr. Andrew Smith in South Africa 

 these huge pachyderms do not absolutely require for their support the 

 dense tropical vegetation we should think necessary to supply food to such 

 huge beasts. t Since marching through the forests of the Maharaja of 

 Benares in Keyra and noticing forest forms like Shorea, Tectona, Dlas- 

 peros in alluvial country, their gradual disappearance when the humidity 

 is lowered by debasement and the substitution of forms like Butea and 

 Zizyphus characteristic of the scrubby jungles of the N. W. P., my ideas 

 on the subject have considerably enlarged. I was not aware at the time 

 that the Emperor Baber had recorded that he found both the rhinoceros 

 and elephant common under the walls of Cliunar when he visited that 



* A fist of the fossil shells found by me in the same locality and presented 

 to the Indian Museum was given me by Mr. G. Neville, but I have unfortunately mis- 

 laid his letter. 



t The tapir alluded to by General Cunningham as occurring on the sculptures 

 of the Bharhut stupa is a mythical rhinocerote. The pensile lip is tolerably charac- 

 teristic. 



