366 FALCONER ON THE PERIM ISLAND FOSSILS. 



p. 371., tliis nominal species appearing to include two very 

 distinct forms. One of these ( Mr. Cliffs, pi. 37. figs. 1 — 4) 

 seems to have been common on the western side of India, and in 

 Ava, while it is but rarely found in the Sewalik Hills. The 

 Perim Sus is identical with a Sewalik species (Sus Hysudricus 

 Fal. and Caut.); and a like agreement has been noticed as hold- 

 ing with one species of Giraffe. The Dinotherium and Braina- 

 therium have not yet been observed amidst the fossils of the 

 Sewalik Hills, wiiile the gigantic tortoise ( Colossochelys Atlas) 

 ranged from the Sewalik Hills to the Irawaddi.* The Hexa- 

 protodon form of Hippopotamus occurs in Perim Island, Ava, the 

 valley of the Nerbudda River, and the Sewalik Hills. 



I have had occasion, in more than one instance, in joint com- 

 munications with Captain Cautley to the Geological Society, to 

 refer to the singular richness of the ancient Fauna of India, in 

 mammiferous forms. As a general expression of the leading 

 features, it may be stated that it appears to have been composed 

 of representative forms of all ages, from the oldest of the tertiary 

 period down to the modern, and of all the geographical divisions 

 of the old continent grouped together into one comprehensive 

 fauna, in the countries along the valley of the Ganges. The Dino- 

 therium of the miocene period of Europe was, till now, a notable 

 exception ; but the fossil described in the preceding pages shows 

 that ancient India was not without a representative of this most 

 remarkable genus. In addition to most of the known types of 

 Ruminants, we have now evidence that the same country had, in 

 the Sivatherium and Bramatherium, at least two colossal forms of 

 this order. 



In regard to the precise determination of the age of the ossiferous 

 deposits of India, the problem still remains to be solved. The 

 western coast of the peninsula will, in all probability, furnish the 

 most certain and numerous data for its solution ; as we may expect 

 there to find deposits and organic contents corresponding to the 

 numerous alternations of upheavement and submergence which the 

 land on that side of the continent has undergone. Fossil remains 

 of Elephant, Hippopotamus, Equus, &c, were discovered by Dr. 

 Spilsbury f, in the valley of the Nerbudda, near Jabalpur, in a 

 bed of limestone capped by a thick mass of basalt, and traces of 

 mammiferous remains have been found in other parts of the 

 basaltic district of Central India. Extensive lacustrine deposits 

 disrupted and altered by the same igneous rock have been met with 

 over a wide extent of the Deccan, containing the same species of 

 Paludina, Physa, Limnea^ Unio^ and Cypris. \ 



Reasoning from these facts, Dr. Malcolmson was led to the 

 inference " that the part of the Yindhya range near Mandoo was 



* There are fragments of this great Chelonian among the fossils brought by 

 Mr. Crawford from Ava. 



\ Jom\ Asiat. Soc. of Bengal, vol. ii. p. 583. 



\ Malcolmson, Geol. Trans, series 2. vol. v. p. 570. 



