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Description of the Sivatherium, 



[July 



This closes what we have been led to infer regarding the organs of the 

 head. With respect to the rest of the skeleton, we have nothing to offer, 

 as we are not at present possessed of any other remains which we can 

 with certainty refer to the Sivatherium. Among a quantity of bones* 

 collected from the same neighbourhood with the head fossil, there are 

 three singularly perfect specimens of the lower portions of the extre- 

 mities of a large ruminant, belonging to three legs of one individuals 

 They greatly exceed the size of any known ruminant, and excepting the 

 Sivatherium Giganteum, there is no other ascertained animal of the 

 order, in our collection, of proportionate size to them. We forbear 

 from further noticing them at present, as they appear small in com- 

 parison for our fossil : and besides, there are indications in our col- 

 lection, in teeth and other remains, of other large ruminants, different 

 from the one we have described. 



The form of the vertebree, and more especially of the carpi and tarsi, 

 are points of great interest, to be ascertained ; as we may expect mo- 

 difications of the usual type adapted to the large size of the animal. 

 From its bulk and armed head, few animals could be strong enough to 

 contend with it, and we may expect that its extremities were constructed 

 more to give support, than for rapidity of motion. But, in the rich 

 harvest which we still hope to reap in the valleys of the Markanda, it 

 is probable that specimens to illustrate the greater part of the osteolo- 

 gy of the Sivatherium will at no very distant period be found. 



The structure of the teeth suggests an idea regarding the peculiari- 

 ties of the herbivorous habits of the animal. In the description it was 

 noticed that the inner central plate of enamel ran in a flexuous sweep, 

 somewhat resembling what is seen in the Elasmotherium, an arrange- 

 ment evidently intended to increase the grinding powder of the teeth. 

 It may hence be inferred, that the food of the Sivatherium was less her- 

 baceous than that of existing horned ruminants, and derived from leaves 

 and twigs i or that as in the horse, the food was more completely 

 masticated, the digestive organs less complicated ; the body less bulky, 

 and the necessity of regulation from the stomach less marked than in 

 the present Ruminantia. 



The following dimensions, contrasted with those of the Elephant and 

 Rhinoceros, will afford a tolerably accurate idea of the size of the Siva- 

 therium. They are characteristic, although not numerous : — 



* We note here a very perfect cervical vertebras of a Ruminant in our possession, 

 which must have belonged to an animal of proportions equal to that of the Sivatherium, 

 but from certain characters, we are inclined to suspect that it is allied to some other gigan- 

 tic species of Ruminant, of the existence of which we have already folerahle certainty. 

 Of the existence -of the Elk, and a species of Camelidie, Lieut. Bakes of the Engineers 

 has shewn us ample proof. 



