42 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Jan. 



great physical changes accompanied by marked organic differences 

 subsequently to this Upper Miocene period. And to this cause is 

 due the fact to which Mr. Blanford so justly drew attention, that the 

 fauna of the Nerbudda valley-beds, has a nearer alliance with the 

 Western or Africo-European fauna, than has that now existing in the 

 Nerbudda district. The two fauna3 were in fact one in earlier times, 

 and the divergence since then has been most gradual and is still in 

 progress. 



Gentlemen, I allude to these researches not so much for the. 

 object of exciting attention to the very startling and very important 

 facts which these truths contain, but rather to point out how essential 

 it is that in such enquiries we should be convinced, that the only true 

 solution to be sought for in such problems, is to be obtained from 

 a careful study of the existing animals in each country, and then of 

 the relations which the extinct forms bore to them. I have purposely 

 endeavoured to avoid as much as possible the use of terms derived 

 from European geology, save when speaking of European results, be- 

 cause I feel convinced that the basis of the classification which has 

 hitherto been adopted for these geologically recent deposits in India, 

 has been erroneous. To appeal to Europe for evidence of the geologi- 

 cal age of our Indian deposits, is to appeal to witnesses who cannot know 

 the facts, and must therefore give irrelevant or false evidence. Would 

 an Australian geologist be justified in admitting his cave deposits to be 

 secondary, because in Europe marsupial animals were found in second- 

 ary rocks; reversing the question, would an European geologist declare 

 the deposits which hold these marsupial remains to be of recent age, 

 because marsupial animals now existed in Australia ? The only key- 

 to a knowledge of the true succession of Indian rocks is to be found 

 in India, and too much caution cannot be insisted on, in attempting to 

 adapt to this country laws of distribution of animal life derived from 

 the investigation of other and distant lands. 



As Falconer eloquently pointed out long since, it is in India, if any- 

 where, that we must hope to solve the great problem of the succession 

 of life. Here, if anywhere, shall we find in these ancient alluvia of 

 marvellous extent, some of those intermediate forms, all but totally 

 wanting in Europe. 





