1867.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 145 



Taurine, belonging to the subgenus Gauseus or Bibos, widely different 

 in structure from the true round horned Taurines ; and both the 

 G-aur and other species of the same subgenus are unknown north and 

 west of India, in the countries inhabited by the modified (domestic) 

 descendants of Bos primigenius, but abound throughout the Malay 

 peninsula, and in several of the islands of the Malay Archipelago. 

 A more complete case of the substitution of one animal by another 

 with distinct affinities could scarcely be imagined ; now I know of no 

 such case of substitution having taken place in Europe since the 

 pleistocene period ; species have died out, just as the Hexaprotodont 

 and Tetraprotodont Hippopotami of the Nerbudda have become 

 extinct in India, but that is all ; and I cannot help thinking that the 

 distinction is important, and that it indicates a longer interval in 

 India since the deposition of the Nerbudda gravels than has taken 

 place in Europe, since the formation of those pleistocene beds in which 

 the oldest remains of man, yet discovered, have been found. The 

 fauna of India at the present day is a remarkable mixture of African 

 and Malay forms. The idea, so commonly expressed in European books, 

 of India belonging to the same geological province as the Malay 

 peninsula and Southern China, is quite erroneous. The fauna of 

 the Nerbudda gravels, however, so far as it has hitherto been worked 

 out, appears to have been either purely Western (African and 

 European) in its affinities, or to have been much more nearly allied 

 to the "Western fauna than is that now existing." 



Mr. Justice Phear remarked — 



" That as there was still, no doubt, very much incredulity as to 

 whether these supposed stone implements were properly attributable 

 to a human origin or not, he might be permitted to mention a fact 

 which in some sort afforded negative evidence in favour of the 

 hypothesis. A few years ago, he had occasion to examine with some 

 care the gravels of the valleys of denudation in Norfolk and Suffolk : 

 a very large portion of these gravels consist solely of flint, and are 

 the result of the erosion and the dissolving of the chalk in which 

 the flints were originally imbedded. In most instances, no traces 

 of beach action are apparent, though on the other hand the flints are 

 often broken, obviously by violence. The result is, that in these 

 counties are very large quantities of gravels, in which the flints 

 universally exhibit abrupt outlines and sharp edges : still, among these 



