

Parr IV. Secor. iv.§ 2] PLIOCENE. 879 
species of true antelope —Palzotragus, an antelope-like animal, Palzoryzx, 
somewhat like the living African gemsbok, and Palzoreas, allied to the 
African eland and the gazelles—Gazella, a true gazelle, Dremotherium, 
probably a hornless ruminant like the living chevrotains. A few 
remains of birds have also been met with, including a Phasianus, related 
to our pheasant, a Gallus, smaller than our common domestic fowl, a 
Grus, closely related to the living crane; also bones of a turtle and a 
saurian (Varanus). This fauna is remarkable for the extraordinary 
abundance of its ruminants, the colossal size of many of the forms, such 
as the giraffe and Helladotherium, the singular rarity of the smaller 
mammals, the marked African facies which runs through the whole 
series, and the number of transitional types which it contains. The 
Pikermi beds have been classed as upper Miocene, but the occurrence 
of some true Pliocene species of shells below them, and the marked 
preponderance of living types, justify their being placed in a later stage 
of the Tertiary series. 
India.—Not less important than the massive Pliocene accumulations 
of the Mediterranean basin are those which have been formed in Sind, the 
Punjab, and other north-western tracts of India. In Sind the noteworthy 
fact has been made out by the Indian Geological Survey that from the 
upper Cretaceous to the Pliocene beds the whole succession of strata, 
with some trifling local exceptions, is conformable and continuous; yet 
contains evidence of alternations of marine and terrestrial conditions, the 
latest marine intercalations being of Miocene date. 'The upper division 
of the Manchhar group (p. 869) is not improbably referable to the 
Pliocene period. It consists of clays, sandstones, and conglomerate, 5000 
feet thick, which have yielded some indeterminable fragmentary bones. 
Similar strata cover a vast area in the Punjab. They are admirably 
exposed in the long range of hills termed the Sub-Himalayas, which 
from the Brahmaputra to the Jhelum, a distance of 1500 miles, flank 
the main chain, and consist chiefly of soft massive sandstone disposed in 
two parallel lines of ridge having a steep southerly face and a more 
gentle northerly slope, and separated by a broad flat valley. These 
strata, having an aggregate thickness of between 12,000 and 15,000 feet, 
contain representatives of the older Tertiary or Nummulitic series, fol- 
lowed by younger Tertiary deposits which are classed together in what 
has been termed the Siwalik group. This group is of fresh-water origin, 
for its included organisms are entirely land or fresh-water forms. Its 
component clays, sandstones, and conglomerates have been deposited by 
great rivers, which appear to have flowed from the Himalayan chain by 
the same outlets as their modern representatives. These deposits vary 
according to their position relatively to the great rivers. They have 
been involved in the last colossal movements whereby the Himalayas 
have been upheaved, yet their structure shows that the same distribution 
of the watercourses has been maintained as existed before the disturb- 
ance. In this instance, as in that of the Green River through the Uinta 
range in western America, the inference seems to be legitimate that the 
elevation of the mountains must have proceeded so slowly that the erosion 
of the river kept pace with it, and the positions of the valleys were there- 
fore not sensibly changed. (See p. 920.) 
The Siwalik fauna consists partly of a few land or fresh-water 
molluscs, some, if not all, of which are identical with living species; but 

