1867.] the Western Himalaya and Afghan Mountains. 107 



marsh. Now this hullur appears to have existed in the soil of 

 the Upper Miocene, as the sandstones of that age are often covered 

 with an efflorescence of that salt ; and, indeed, that now seen in 

 the alluvium is derived from the disintegrating, decaying and 

 washing away of the Miocene beds. The fossil bones are always 

 found either in a dark clay-stone, which has a bitter taste when 

 applied to the tongue, or in a light-coloured sandy claystone. It 

 is therefore highly probable that the existence of a marsh or swamp 

 is necessary to the preservation of bones and their fossilification. This 

 accounts for the bones being found in beds of limited extent, whilst 

 for many miles not one is to be discovered ; but it also brings 

 additional evidence that the Upper Miocene was deposited as a growing 

 delta, similar to the Sunderbunds of the Ganges and to the creeks of 

 the mouths of the Indus. 



What a singular landscape this belt of land must have presented ! 

 If we remember that at least seven different species of elephants 

 roamed in these jungles, some much larger than the living one, and 

 with tusks nine feet and a half long ; that the dinotherium had a skull 

 three feet and nine inches in length ; that the mastodon was 17 feet 

 Jong from the tail to the end of the tusks; that the sivatherium was a 

 gigantic four-horned antelope-like animal ; that the crocodiles were 

 much larger than they are at present, and that the tortoises had a shell 

 measuring 20 feet across ; we may wonder indeed at the strange 

 appearance which the jungles must have presented ! ! 



I have called this fossilifer,ous formation Upper Miocene. In placing 

 it in the Miocene, I have adopted the general opinion of geologists, 

 but it may be Pliocenic and not Miocenic. I have not succeeded yet 

 in discovering shells in these beds, and without shells it is impossible 

 to fix with certainty the age of the formation. 



I have forgotten to notice, that during the whole of the Miocene 

 epoch there was a slow and steady sinking of the land. This sinking- 

 allowed of the accumulation of materials to the great thickness I have 

 indicated, but unlike that which took place during the Eocene period, 

 it was not sufficient to keep the country under the sea, the quantity 

 of sand and clay and boulders, deposited by the rivers, being more than 

 adequate to compensate for the sinking. The country, however, by 

 the sinking was kept to a very little height above the sea level, and 



