20 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Jan. 



evidence in India of the existence of man at a much earlier period 

 than in Europe ; but that the subject has not attracted, among 

 scientific men, the attention it deserves. There is evidence of the 

 co-existence of men with the animals whose fossil bones are found in 

 the Godavery gravels ; and that this indicates a great antiquity ; for the 

 fauna of the Nerbudda gravels (which is identical with that of the 

 Godavery,) indicates the presence of animals of Western (African 

 and European) affinities, which have since, in long periods of time, 

 been substituted by creatures of Malayan affinities. 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 

 JBos primigenius of Europe, (the Bos JJrus) 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 

 Taurine belonging to the sub-genus Gavseus or Bibos, widely different 

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

 and other species of the same sub-genus are unknown north and west 

 of India, in the countries inhabited by the modified domestic descen- 

 dants of the JBos primigenius, but abound throughout the Malay 

 Peninsula and in several islands in the Malayan Archipelago. This, 

 as Mr. Blanford pointed out, is a case of complete substitution of one 

 animal by another, and he knows of no case of substitution having 

 taken place 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. It seems to 

 indicate 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 yet discovered, are 

 found. The antiquity is therefore doubtless great, and the suggestion 

 is one worthy of the attention of Palasontologists. 



Some discussion followed on the antiquity, uses and varieties of 

 these implements ; and some glass flakes, recently brought from the 

 Andaman islands, and resembling those of obsidian found in Mexico 

 when first the Europeans landed there, were exhibited, and excited 

 much interest ; as serving to connect the past with actually existing 

 races of men, whose debased condition contrasts as strongly with 



