34 



NOTE ON THE FOSSIL GHARIAL 



however we had the satisfaction of finding a large fragment of bone in situ> 

 in a stratum of sand stone rock, in the face of a cliff, terminating one of 

 those tortuous little streams that drain the steep slopes of the mountains 

 into the main channel. The sand stone stratum in which this was found 

 was inclined as usual in an angle of from 2' to 30° — and the position of 

 the fossil was perhaps 600 feet from the bed of the main river. In the 

 present state of the enquiry this fact is interesting, for it appears that in the 

 many slips that have been visited and most carefully examined, no fossils 

 have been found actually in the rock, with the exception of the instances 

 above mentioned. The fossils are evidently not confined to the sand-stone ; 

 the clays and clayey conglomerates have their proportion also. 



Of the Crocodile of these strata I have attempted in the preceding 

 section to shew as far as measurements and my limited means point out, 

 that the main difference between the fossil and the existing animal of the 

 present rivers is in the breadth ; a difference that might tend to an opinion 

 of its being allied to the Cayman, did not other more distinct characters 

 separate it at once from that subgenus. In the Gharidl now under review 

 I am unable to recognize any difference from the living animal ; and there 

 are certain peculiarities about the external surface of the skull of the exist- 

 ing Gharidl, in slight indentations and rugosities, which are singularly 

 coincident with the fossil. The following measurements are taken from two 

 recent skulls, one of an animal 10 feet 5 inches long, and the other 8 feet 

 8 inches long : — the measurements of the fossil, from a very perfect skull 

 with the beak broken off, which is evidently the remain of a large animal. 



Upper Jaw. 

 Number of Teeth, 56. 



Existing 

 10 Feet 5 inches long. 



Gharidl. 



8 Feet 8 Inches long. 



Fossil 

 Gharidl, 



Inches. 



Metres. 



Inches. 



Metres. 



Inches. 



Metres. 



Extreme length from point of muz- 















zle to outer margin of occipital 

















22.7 



0.577 



19.5 



0.495 







Breadth on the temporal bones at 















the articulation with lower jaw,.. 



8.2 



0.21 



6.5 



0.166 









4.3 



0.108 



3.4 



0.086 



9.3 



0.236 





1.95 



0.019 



1.5 



0.038 







