1840.] Fossil remains of Camelidca of the Sewaliks. 623 



As a fossil discovery, the camel is of great interest ; its position with regard 

 to the Pachydermata and Ruminants, is a link of a now broken chain. The 

 Sivatherium was one, and Mr. Owen's Macrauchenia was another, to explain 

 the mystery, and add two links to a broken series. That future discovery 

 will tend still farther to prove the wisdom of design as an inference, is borne 

 out, by every succeeding step in Palseentological Research. 



Whether the camel has existed in an originally wild state in any period 

 within the historical era, is a question that has been argued at consider- 

 able length. The animal in a state of domestication is spoken of during the 

 early period of the Scriptural writings, and by subsequent authors at all 

 periods of history; it is mentioned by Strabo and Diodorus Siculus, as having 

 been found in a wild state in Arabia about the commencement of the 

 Christian era. 



Pallas who argues on the evidence of the Tartars, that the wild camel is 

 found in Central Asia, is met by Cuvier in the well known fact, of the 

 Culmuks being in the habit of giving liberty to all sorts of animals on 

 religious principles : the natives of Hindostan, who act in the same way, 

 and are guided by similar motives, have in their affection for the cow and 

 ox, given rise to a race of wild cattle perfectly distinct from those of the 

 forest. In the districts of Akbarpoor and Dostpoor, in the province of 

 Oude, large herds of black oxen are, or were, to be found in the wild and 

 uncultivated tracts ; a fact to which I can bear testimony from my own 

 personal observation, having in 1821 come in contact with a very large 

 herd of these beasts, of which we were only fortunate enough to kill one, 

 their excessive shyness and wildness preventing us from a near approach 

 at any second opportunity. The wild horses of Southern America, are 

 another proof of the tendency of animals to congregate in herds, and 

 assume the character of originally wild animals, although properly the 

 offspring of domesticated cattle set at liberty ; the proof, however, after all, 

 is merely in the possibility of domesticated animals being able to return 

 again to a state of nature, and assume the functions of their primitive 

 designation. 



The object of this paper is merely to establish the fact of the camel 

 having been found in a fossil state in the Sewalik hills, the identification 

 being more complete perhaps than that of any other of the numerous 

 genera and species which these hills have made us acquainted with. 

 Judging from the number of the remains of this family in our collections, 

 the camel could not have existed in great abundance, and their proportion 

 to the true Ruminants, must have been comparatively small. 

 Norther n Doab, 

 Sept. Sth, 1840. 



