1836.] 



Description of the Sivatherium, fyc. 



219 



Sivatherium Giganteum, a new Fossil Ruminant Genus, from the Val- 

 ley of the Markanda, in the Sivdlik branch of the Sub-Himalayan 

 Mountains. By Hugh Falconer, M. D., Superintendent Botanical 

 Garden, Sehdranpur, and Captain P. T. Ca.u tley, Superintendent 

 Dodb Canal, 



* # * " Within the last few years the progress of fossil geology, that 

 talisman by whose aid the secret history of our earth is laid open, has 

 been most rapid."* If this is true as relates to Europe, it is equally 

 applicable to the history of geological discovery in India. No longer 

 since than 1829, Mr. Calder observed — " With regard to organic re- 

 mains (the most interesting of all the branches of geological science) 

 it is to be feared that India is not likely to prove a productive field."f 

 Even so late as 1832, we find Mr. Conybeare in his Report on Geology 

 to the British Association for the advancement of science, expressing 

 his surprise at " the general absence of organic remains in the seconda- 

 ry rocks of India." % Since the last mentioned date, discovery, has fol- 

 lowed discovery, until the Indian fossil fauna begins to vie with that of 

 Europe and N. America in extent and interest ; and now we have to 

 record that the remains of a species of animal have been found whose 

 analogue is unknown in the geology of the west. It is to the impetus 

 given to discovery by the Asiatic Society of Bengal, through the pages 

 of their Journal, edited by their talented and energetic Secretary Mr* 

 James Prinsep, to whom science in India owes more than to any other 

 individual at the present time, that these rapid and extraordinary pro- 

 gress is attributable. To the pages of the Bengal Journal, passim, we 

 must refer for descriptions and delineations of the fossils alluded to j 

 and proud and delighted shall we be if our pages should be the medium 

 for communicating to the world similar discoveries in the Peninsula of 

 India. Colonel Cullen, Mr. Malcolm son and Dr. Benza, have pointed 

 out the not yet fully explored path, which we hope will be examined 

 by those who have opportunities of so doing. The exuviee hitherto 

 found in southern India have been exclusively confined to shells, but 

 we know not why the remains of the higher orders of animals should 

 not be met with. At any rate, it is a curious problem to unfold under 

 what peculiar circumstances and at what eras, the formations of the 

 Peninsula have been upheaved or deposited, that they should be ex- 

 empted from appearances which are universally met with in other 

 parts of the world. We have curtailed the following from the January 

 number of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, as we have 

 not space to give the minute osteological descriptions. A representa- 

 tion of this singular relic, for which we are also indebted to the same 

 publication, accompanies the text. — Editor Madras Journal. 



* Quarterly Review, No. ex. p. 433. t Asiatic Researches, vol. 18. p. 18. 



* Reports, 1832. p. 395. 



