XV 



the plaius. Dr. Falconer restricted the term definitely to the flanking 

 tcrtiray range, which is commonly separated from the Himalayahs by valleys 

 or Boons. The proposed name was not favourably received at the time 

 by geographical authorities in India ; but it is now universally adopted in 

 geography and geology as a convenient and well-founded designation. On 

 his first visit to the Sewalik Hills, Dr. Falconer concluded that they did 

 not belong to the ''New Red Sandstone,*' to which they had been referred 

 by Captain Herbert, but that they were of a tertiary age, and analogous to 

 the Molasse of Switzerland. Thirty years of subsequent investigation by 

 other geologists have not altered that determination, although our exact 

 knowledge of the formation has been greatly extended. 



The researches thus begun were followed about the end of 1834 by the 

 discoveiy by Lieutenants Baker and Durand of the great ossiferous deposit 

 of the Sewaliks, near the valley of the Markunda, westward of the Jumna, 

 and below Nahnn. Captain Cautley and Dr. Falconer were immediately 

 in the field, and by the joint labours of these four oihcers a subtropical 

 mammalian fossil fauna was brought to light, unexampled for richness and 

 extent in any other region then knovrn. It included the earliest discovered 

 fossil Quadrumana*, an extraordinary number of Prohoscidia belonging 

 to Mastodon, Stegodon, and Elephas i several extinct species of Rhinocei^os ; 

 CJialicotherium ; two new subgenera Hippopotamus, Viz. Hexaprotodon 

 and Merycopotamus ; several species of Sus and Hiy)poJiyus, and of Equus 

 and Hippotlierium ; the colossal ruminant Sivatheriiim, together with fossil 

 species of Camel, Giraffe, Cervus, Antilope, Capra, and new types of 

 Bovidce ; Carnivora belonging to the new genera Sivalarctos and Enhy- 

 driodon, and also MacJiairodus, Felis, HycBna, Canis, Gulo, Lutra, &c. ; 

 among the Aves, species of Ostrich, Cranes, &c. Among the EejJtilia, 

 Monitors, and Crocodiles, of living and extinct species, the enormous 

 tortoise, Colossochelys Atlas, with numerous species of Emys and Trionyx ; 

 and among fossil Fish, Cyprinidce and SiluridcB. The general facies of 

 the extinct fauna exhibited a congregation of forms participating in Euro- 

 pean, African, and Asiatic types. Thrown suddenly upon such rich mate- 

 rials, the ordinary means resorted to by men of science for determnning 

 them by comparison were wanting. Of paleeontological works or osteo- 

 logical collections in that remote quarter of India there were none. But 

 Falconer was not the man to be baffied by such discouragements. He 

 appealed to the living forms abounding in the surrounding forests, rivers, 

 and swamps to supply the want. Skeletons of all kinds were prepared ; 

 the extinct forms were compared with their nearest living analogues, and 

 a series of memoirs by Dr. Falconer and Captain Cautley, descriptive of 



* Dr. Falconer's first publislied memoir on the Quadrmnana of the SewaHk Hills 

 was dated November 24th, 1836, and it was not until January 16th, 1837, that M. 

 Lartet's memoir on the discovery of the jaw of an Ape in the tertiary fi-eshwater forma- 

 tion of Simon'e was presented to the French Academy of Sciences. 



