FBOM THE SIVALIK HILL?. 121 



Messrs. Blanford and Medlicott, " are extremely fragmentary, and 

 chiefly consist of single teeth and broken portions of bones "*. Fif- 

 teen species of Mammalia have been determined from such remains ; 

 and of these ten are also met with in the ossiferous Sivaliks. One 

 would therefore feel some hesitation in referring the latter to an 

 age subsequent to that of the Lower Manchhars. 



The palseontological evidence adduced by the learned geologists 

 is, according to their own admission, far more unsatisfactory. In 

 fact, in order to explain the Miocene facies of the Sivalik fauna, they 

 have had to adopt the theory that some of the European Miocene 

 forms survived in the Sivalik area during Pliocene times. The 

 theory is simple in itself ; and no objection can be raised against it. 

 But obviously we should have recourse to such a theory only if the 

 ossiferous Sivaliks were proved by clear stratigraphical evidence to 

 belong to the Pliocene epoch, or if the Sivalik fauna could be shown 

 to have decidedly stronger affinities with the Pliocene than with 

 the Miocene faunas of other localities. It is greatly to be regretted 

 that the exact horizons from which the fossils have been collected 

 are not known; and there can be no doubt that a few of these 

 (though their number must be very limited) are more recent than 

 the rest. But it is certain that by far the great majority of the 

 animals composing the Sivalik fauna lived at an epoch intermediate 

 between the Middle Miocene and the Middle Pliocene; and the 

 question is whether the fauna should be quoted as L^pper Miocene 

 or Lower Pliocene. I shall here only attempt to answer this 

 question on the palaeontological evidence aff'orded by the Carnivora, 

 the subjects of this description ; but I may say that if the Sivalik 

 fauna were discussed as a whole, the answer would not be different. 



There are 12 genera of Carnivora known from the Sivaliks. Of 

 these, six (^. e. half), viz. Machcerodus, Pseiidceluriis^ Ictitherium^ 

 Ampliicyon^ Hycenarctos, and Enhydriodon, are extinct. Of the 11 

 genera of Carnivorat known from the Miocene of Sansan and Simorre, 

 6 {i. e. a little more than half) are extinct, viz. Machcerodus, Pseu- 

 dcelurus, Amphicyon, Hycenarctos {Hemicyon), Ictitlierium (Thallas- 

 sictis\ and Fseudocyon. The first five of these genera are common 

 to the Sivaliks ; Machcerodus ranges from Miocene to Pleistocene ; 

 but Pseudcelurus, Amphicyon, and Hyamarctos are characteristically 

 Miocene genera, though the first and the third have been met with 

 in deposits of Pliocene age, the former in America, and the latter in 

 Europe. Amphicyon, however, is not yet known to have survived 

 the Miocene epoch. Enhydriodon has been hitherto confined to the 

 Sivaliks. Now if we examine the Lower Pliocene fauna of Mont- 

 pellieri, or the Upper Pliocene fauna of Mount Perrier§, we find 

 only one extinct Carnivore, and that the ubiquitous Machcerodus. 

 The fauna begins to assume an altogether recent aspect. The 

 fossils found at Pikermi present, as a whole, a close parallel to those 

 from the Sivalik HiUs — so much so that Messrs. Medlicott and 



* Op. cit. p. 47L 



t Pictet, 'Traits de Pal^ontologie,' torn. iv. p. 677. 



X Pictet, op. cit. p. 681. § Pictet, ojy. cit. p. (j%'^. 



