620 



On the Fossil Remains of Camelidce of the Sewaliks. By Capt. Cautley, 



Artillery. 



" But the most interesting discovery was that of a Camel, of which the 

 skull and jaw were found. It is to be observed that no decisive proof of 

 any of the Camelidae, either camel, dromedary, or lama, had ever been 

 hitherto found among fossil bones, although Cuvier had proved certain 

 teeth brought from Siberia to be undoubtedly of this family, if they were 

 really fossil, which he doubted. This discovery in India was therefore 

 extremely interesting, as, supplying a wanting genus. But for this very 

 reason, it became the more necessary to authenticate the position of this 

 supposed camel's remains the more clearly, especially as there were abun- 

 dance of existing camels in the country, which there could not be in Siberia. 

 The Indian account is somewhat deficient in this respect, leaving us in 

 doubt whether the bones, admitted to bear a very close resemblance to the 

 living species, were found in a stratum, or loose and detached." Dissertations 

 on subjects of science connected with Natural Theology, by Henry Lord Brougham, 

 F. R. S. $c. vol. ii. pp. 213, 214, 1839. 



It is only within the last few months, that the most interesting volumes 

 from which the above is an extract have reached this remote part of 

 India ; long as the extract is, however, its introduction may be permitted, 

 as affording us the opportunity of removing all doubts of the existence 

 of the camel among the Fossil Fauna of the Sewaliks, by a few supplemen- 

 tary remarks, which a reperusal of the original paper published in the 

 Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, with reference to the para- 

 graph above quoted, renders necessary. 



To those who have interested themselves in the discovery of the fossil 

 remains, which has been made in the Sewaliks, it need hardly be necessary 

 to allude to the two very distinct states in which the mineralization has 

 taken place : that in which the fossil is impregnated more or less with 

 iron in the form of a hydrate, and that where the calcareous elements of 

 the bone are nearly or entirely unaltered, and the medullary hollows filled 

 with matrix ; the former universally existing in those remains extracted from 

 the sandstone rock, the latter from the subordinate beds or substrata, either 

 consisting of clay, or an admixture of clay, sand, and shingle. The difference 

 in external appearance is remarkable ; the sandstone fossil being to a common 

 observer an organic substance converted into stone, whereas that which is 

 found in the clay strata, not only conveys an idea of a lesser antiquity, 

 but looks like a substance merely in a progressive state of petrifaction. 



As the beds of clay, &c, are inferior in position to the extensive sandstone 

 strata, the palm of antiquity rests with the fossils of the clay. These 



