402 Note on the Fossil Buffalo from Hoshangdbdd. [Aug. 



It is well known that the hones of sheep, goats, antelopes, camelo- 

 pards, (unless the conjecture hy our curator regarding the specimen 

 from the Jumna should prove to be true*,) have never heen met with 

 in a fossil state, among the immense abundance of fragments carefully 

 examined by Cuvier himself in the course of twenty years. None of 

 these have yet been discovered among our Indian collections. It is 

 necessary therefore to be most cautious in pronouncing upon our buffalo, 

 until the discovery of his horns shall put the question of departure from 

 the rules developed by the great teacher of the science of fossil osteology, 

 beyond doubt : especially as we find from Pidgron that " one species of 

 ox, which accompanies the elephant, has massive limbs and a cranium 

 like the buffalof." 



One point may be looked upon as pretty certainly established by the 

 discovery of the present head : namely, that the teeth of the ruminan- 

 tia from other parts of the Nerbudda valley, and from the bed of the 

 Jamna, which so exactly resemble these now found in situ, protruding 

 from their rocky envelope, belong to the same animal : at least it is 

 safe so to consider them, being desirable to avoid the multiplying of 

 species, except on the strongest evidence. 



Meanwhile, we should particularly direct the attention of our geolo- 

 gists of the Nerbudda, (or philo-geologists, if Dr. Spilsbury will so 

 have it,) to the neighbourhood of Dr. Irvine's house at Hoshangdbdd. 

 The spot whence this skull was extricated will most likely be prolific 

 of other riches in equally good preservation. They should be chiselled 

 out of the rock by a skilful stone-cutter, to prevent injury, and at the 

 same time, to take off as much of the rocky matrix as possible. A pair 

 of buffalo's horns would indeed be a rich prize. 



We see by the section of the Nerbudda, with which Dr. Spilsbury 

 has now favored the Society!, that the calcareous gravelly conglome- 

 rate extends over a considerable portion of the valley at the foot of 

 the cliffs : — four points, including the spot where the fossil jaw of a 

 horse was picked up in making this very section from Tendukhera, are 

 now marked upon the accompanying sketch-map as the ascertained sites 

 of fossil bone deposits. More will doubtless be discovered even by the per- 

 severing exertions of one individual ; but a field of so great promise, were 

 it in Europe, would not be left to such slow cultivation. It would be 

 made the object of a special expedition of scientists (as they are called 

 at Cambridge) from the Government, or from some geological associa- 

 tion, and the impatience of theorists would soon be satisfied with a full 



* See Proceedings of the 3rd July, 1834. 

 t Pidgeon's Fossil Remains, p. 116. 

 X See the foregoing article. 



