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Description of the Sivatherium, 



[July 



The fossil which we are about to describe forms a new accession to 

 extinct Zoology. This circumstance alone would give much interest 

 to it. But in addition, the large size, surpassing the rhinoceros; the 

 family of Mammalia to which it belongs; and the forms of structure 

 which it exhibits ; render the Sivatherium one of the most remarkable 

 of the past tenants of the globe, that have hitherto been detected in 

 the more recent strata. 



Of the numerous fossil mammiferous genera discovered and esta- 

 blished by Cuvier, all were confined to the Pachydermata. The 

 species belonging to other families have all their living representatives 

 on the earth. Among the Ruminantia, no remarkable deviation from 

 existing types has hitherto been discovered, the fossil being closely 

 allied to living species. The isolated position, however, of the Giraffe 

 and the Camelidse, made it probable, that certain genera had become 

 extinct, which formed the connecting links between those and the other 

 genera of the family, and further between the Ruminantia and the 

 Pachydermata. In the Sivatherium* we have a ruminant of this de- 

 scription connecting the family with the Pachydermata, and at the 

 same time so marked by individual peculiarities as to be without an 

 analogue in its order. 



The fossil remain of the Sivatherium, from which our description is 

 taken, is a remarkably perfect head. When discovered, it was fortu- 

 nately so completely enveloped by a mass of stone, that although it 

 had long been exposed to be acted upon as a boulder in a water-course, 

 all the more important parts of structure had been preserved. The 

 block might have been passed over, but for an edging of the teeth in 

 relief from it, which gave promise of something additional concealed. 

 After much labour, the hard crystalline covering of stone was so suc- 

 cessfully removed, that the huge head now stands out with a couple of 

 horns between the orbits, broken only near their tips, and the nasal 

 bones projected in a free arch, high above the chaffron. All the molars 



* We have named the fossil, Sivatherium, from Siva, the Hindu, god, and Orjpiov 

 lellua. The Sirdlilc or Sub-Himalayan range of hills, is considered in the Hindu mytho- 

 logy, as the Lutiah or edge of the roof of Siva's dwelling in the Himdl aya, and hence 

 they are called the Siva-ala or Sib-ala, which by an easy transition of sound became the 

 E-ewdlik of the English. The fossil has been discovered in a tract which may be included 

 in the Sewdlik range, and we have given the name of Sivatherium to it, to commemorate 

 this remarkable formation so rich in new animals. Another derivation of the name of 

 the hills, as explained by the Maliant or High Priest at Dehra, is as follows : 



Sewdlik a corruption of Siva-wdla, a name given to the tract of mountains between the 

 Jumna and Ganges, from having been the residence of Iswara Siva and his son Gane's 

 who under the form of an Elephant had charge of the Westerly portion from the village 

 of Dudhli to the Jumna, which portion is also called Gangaja, gaja being in Hindi an Ele- 

 phant. That portion Eastward from Dudhli, or between that village and Haridivdr, is 

 called Deodhar, from its being the especial residence of Deota or Iswara Siva : the whole 

 tract however between the Jumna and Ganges is called Siva-ala, or the habitation of 

 Siva : unde. dev. Sewdlik, 



