§ 24. FOSSIL MAMMALIA, &c. OF THE SUB-HIMALAYAHS. 161 



80 feet high ; and on the strand were observed masses of 

 petrified wood, and vast quantities of bones. The adjacent 

 country is formed of low, sterile sand-hills, intersected by 

 ravines, with beds of gravel, which are here and there 

 cemented into a conglomerate by iron and carbonate of 

 lime. Scattered over the surface, in some instances lying 

 loose in the sand, and in others half buried, were masses of 

 silicified wood, and fragments of bones, which had become 

 exposed, from the removal of the sand by the winds and 

 rains. The bones are more or less invested with a hard 

 crust, which is a concretion formed by the consolidation 

 of loose sand from ferruginous and calcareous infiltrations. 

 The natives who assisted Mr. Craufurd's party in collecting 

 these remains, believed them to be the bones of giants 

 that had warred against Vishnu, by whom they were 

 destroyed. 



24. Fossil mammalia, &c. of the Sub-Himalayahs. 

 — But the number of these transitional or intermediate 

 links of elephantine forms, has been greatly increased by 

 the accession made to our knowledge of the fossil fauna 

 of India, by the labours of Major Proby Cautley, and 

 Dr. Falconer, who, with energy and perseverance beyond 

 all praise, formed, and brought to Europe, an immense col- 

 lection of these mammalian remains. The following extract 

 from the prospectus of a work now iu the course of publi- 

 cation by these eminent naturalists, will convey some idea 

 of the richness and interest of their discoveries : — 



u The fossil Fauna of the Sewalik range of hills, skirting the southern 

 base of the Himalayahs, has proved more abundant in genera and 

 species of mammalia than that of any other region yet explored. 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. Of the forms contained in it may be enume- 

 rated, in the Pachydermata, several species of Mastodon and Elephant, 



M 



