1836.] Fossil remains from the Sub-Himalayas. 579 



IX. — Fossil Remains of the smaller Carnivora from the Sub- Himalayas. 

 By Lieut. W. E. Baker and Lieut. H. M. Durand, Engineers. 



The specimens which are the subject of the following note form a 

 part of the Dadiipur Collection, and comprise varieties of the genera, 

 Felis, Canis, and Gulo. 



The comparison of such, with their existing representatives, must 

 necessarily be less satisfactory than that of the large Pachydermatous 

 genera, which being local in their habitats either contain few species, 

 as the Elephant, Hippopotamus, and Tapir, or when, as in the Rhi- 

 noceros, the varieties are more numerous, the size of the animals, and 

 the striking peculiarities of their osteology have claimed for them a 

 minute description and comparison from Cuvier. On the other hand, 

 the smaller carnivorous tribes have a far wider distribution, and their 

 species are as numerous and as varied as the climates under which 

 they are found ; their distinctions are chiefly drawn from the exter- 

 nal characters of the animals. Minute differences in their osteology, 

 if they exist at all, escape the attention of the naturalists who describe 

 them, and would, in fact, possess little interest except for the fos- 

 silist. 



We should not be warranted in pronouncing any particular fossil to 

 belong to an extinct species, without having previously compared it 

 with all the known varieties of its genus ; and even were such exten- 

 sive means of comparison in our power, its result could not be deci- 

 sive*, so long as there remained unexplored regions, whence new 

 varieties might be derived. We shall, therefore, content ourselves 

 wilh negative conclusions drawn from comparison of our fossils, with 

 the skulls of those species only of their existing congeners now in- 

 habiting the neighbouring districts, none other being at our command. 

 Such conclusions, we hope, will not be without geological interest ; as, 

 if we succeed in establishing one or two points of marked difference, 

 they will be sufficient proof that the animals now inhabiting these 

 provinces are not the lineal descendants of those whose remains are 

 entombed in the strata of their soil, and thence may be inferred the 

 occurrence of some great geological change during the lapse of ages, 

 which have intervened between the periods of their several existence. 



Felis. 

 Of this genus there are traces of several vai-ieties among our fossils, 

 but as the larger ones, with the Hyena and Canis, may form the subject 



* For instance, in the 52nd No. of the Journal As. Soc. Mr. Hodgson de- 

 scribes two new species of gulo and one of felis. 

 4 f 2 



