144 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Sept. 



any of the others exhibited, and were evidently much more modern. 

 A full account of them is given in the Proceedings for February, 1861. 



Mr. Ormsby then remarked that he thought one of the best proofs 

 of the antiquity of the ruder forms of stone implements, and of the 

 fact of their being manufactured by man, can be seen in the case of a 

 weapon being found stuck in the scapula of a Megaceros Hibernicus, 

 an animal now extinct. 



Mr. W. T. Blanford said— 



" I am much disposed to believe that we have evidence in India of 

 the existence of man at a much earlier period than in Europe. 

 I pointed this out last year, but the subject has not attracted the 

 attention it deserved ; and I may therefore briefly reapitulate the 

 peculiar circumstances which render the flake found by Mr. Wynne, 

 in situ in the Godavery gravels near Pyton, so peculiarly interesting. 

 As I then stated, although the flake is so well shaped, that I entertain 

 very little doubts of its being of human manufacture, still it is extreme- 

 ly desirable that further evidence should be obtained ; and it is only 

 right to add that, although both Mr. Fedden and I searched carefully 

 this year, in several places upon the tributaries of the Godavery 

 (the Wurda and Pern or Pyne Gunga), where fossil leaves are met 

 with, no more flakes were found. But, accepting Mr. Wynne's flake 

 as of human origin, we have evidence of the co-existence of man with 

 the animals, the bones of which occur in the Godavery gravels, and 

 which are identical with those found in the Nerbudda gravels. The fauna 

 thus indicated differs much more widely from the existing Indian 

 fauna than the pleistocene animals of Europe do from those now 

 existing in that country. The change which has taken place in the 

 Indian fauna since the period of the Nerbudda gravels, consists in 

 a substitution of animals with Malay affinities for animals with 

 European or African affinities. I cannot now enter into this subject at 

 full length, but I will point out the most remarkable instance. The 

 great bovine of the Nerbudda gravels, an animal, the remains of which 

 are peculiarly abundant, was a true Taurine, so closely allied to the 

 great Bos primigeuius of Europe (or, as innovators in scientific 

 nomenclature prefer to call it, Bos Urus,) that the differences are 

 scarcely more than sufficient to constitute geographical races. But, 

 as is well known, the only indigenous race of wild bovines (exclusive of 

 the buffalo) in the Indian peninsula, the Gaur, is a flat horned 



