360 FALCONER ON THE PERIM ISLAND FOSSILS. 



" Deer, Ox, many vertebras and unidentified bones and horns ; tor-- 

 " toise fragments, and a peculiarly perfect Saurian head. " * These 

 identifications are not to be considered, in several of the instances, 

 as more than approximative ; for neither of these gentlemen pro- 

 fess to be familiar with the subject of fossil bones. 



No further account of these remains has appeared in any of the 

 Indian journals since that time. In 1840, Captain Fulljames sent 

 his donation to the Geological Society, and about the same time 

 some specimens from the same locality were presented by Miss 

 Pepper to the British Museum. 



Judging from the matrix which adheres to them, the Perim 

 fossils seem to be imbedded, in most cases, in a calcareo-ferruginous 

 conglomerate, composed of nodules of indurated yellow clay, 

 cemented together by a paste of sand and clay. Some of them are 

 attached to patches of a hard argillaceous sandstone. Many of 

 them have had the matrix washed oiF by the action of the sea, and 

 are in this case generally covered over with the remains of small 

 species of serpula and other recent marine shells. The mineral 

 character of the bones shows that they are penetrated with siliceous 

 infiltration, like a great portion of the Sewalik fossils ; and in 

 consequence they present a great degree of hardness. The same 

 character holds in many of the osseous remains from the crag ; 

 like the latter, the Perim bones, under the action of the sea, wear 

 down into a polished vitreous surface. 



Dinotherum. See PI. 14. fig. 1. la. 



The first of these remains to be noticed is a fragment (figs. 1. 

 and la.) consisting of the posterior half of one of the inferior 

 molars of a species of Dinotherium. The correspondence of the 

 specimen with the teeth of the large European species is so 

 complete in the form of the gable-shaped grinding ridge, its 

 transverse direction, and the reflected marginal bulges into which 

 it swells out on either side, together with the characteristic crenu- 

 lation of the edge, that there can be no doubt of its belonging to 

 the genus Dinotherium. The peculiar " talon " or heel ridge is 

 developed in the same degree and with a like amount of crenula- 

 tion along its edge. The fragment is represented in section in 

 fig. 1 a., the internal structure exhibiting the same agreement 

 with that of the European Dinotherium indicated by the external 

 form. The centre is occupied by a rhomboidal core of arena- 

 ceous matrix marking the form of the unossified pulp nucleus. 

 I have compared it minutely with a corresponding section of the 

 same tooth (the penultimate of the lower jaw) of Dinotherium 

 giganteum (figs 2. and 2 a.) from Eppelsheim ; and the only per- 

 ceptible difference is, that the angle formed by the ridge of the 

 ivory is more acute, and the enamel thicker in the Indian than in 

 the European form. Perhaps no conclusion can be safely drawn 

 from this observed difference of angle in the ivory ridge ; as it may 

 be a peculiarity of the individual. The greater thickness of enamel 

 is probably of more importance, and may represent a mark of 



* Jour. Asiat. Soc. of Beng. vol. vi. 78. (January, 1837.) 



