250 



Proceedings of Societies : 



irfthe same species. I ought to remind you that this same gentleman 

 i\as the discoverer, in 1833, of the Indian Herculaneum or buried town 

 near Behat, north of Seharunpore, which he found seventeen feet be- 

 low the surface of the country when directing the excavation of the 

 Doab Canal.* 



" But I ought more particularly to invite your attention to the joint 

 paper by Dr. Falconer and Captain Cautley on the Sivatherium, a new 

 and extraordinary species of mammalia, which they have minutely 

 described and figured, offering at the same time many profound specu- 

 lations on its probable anatomical relations. The characters of this 

 genus are drawn from a head almost complete, found at first enveloped 

 in a mass of hard stone, which had lain as a boulder in a water-course, 

 but after much labour the covering of stone was successfully removed, 

 and the huge head now stands out with its two horns in relief, the 

 nasal bones being projected in a free arch, and the molars on both 

 sides of the jaw being singularly perfect. This individual must have 

 approached the elephant in size. The genus Sivatherium, say the 

 authors, is the more interesting, as helping to fill up the important 

 blank which has always intervened between the ruminant and pachy- 

 dermatous quadrupeds, for it combines the teeth and horns of a rumi- 

 nant, with ihe lip, face, and probably proboscis of a pachyderm. They 

 also observe, that the extinct mammiferous genera of Cuvier were all 

 confined to the Pachydermata, and no remarkable deviation from ex- 

 isting types had been noticed by him among fossil ruminants, where- 

 as the Sivatherium holds a perfectly isolated position, like the giraffe 

 and the camels, being widely remote from any other type." 



Resolved, that due acknowledgments be addressed to the Geological 

 Society for their courtesy in entrusting the Asiatic Society with the 

 honorary medals awarded to two of their associates, and that they be 

 immediately forwarded with appropriate congratulations to Seharun- 

 pore. 



* Journal of Asiatic Society, Nos. xxv. and xxix. 1834. Principles of Geology, 4th and 

 guT3sequent editions. See Index, Behat. 



