1840.] On the Sevdlic Hills. 801 



rib of an elephant or mastodon, which is forwarded to the Society's Mu- 

 seum, and which consisted of no less than eight pieces. A perfect hu- 

 merus of a ruminant has been secured in this state ; and the bones of 

 two hind legs, namely, the upper part of the metatarsal connected to the 

 lower portion of the tibia by the intermediate tarsal bones, with, also, 

 the OS cakis entire, and all the smaller bones of the tarsus equally so. 

 These remains have belonged to an enormous animal, and, I believe, to 

 the same genus as that of a skull in my possession, and now under des- 

 cription by my friend Dr. Hugh Falconer, of the Bengal medical service, 

 and myself. Although I refrain from zoological details, I must mention, 

 that we have an animal evidently forming a connecting link between the 

 Pachydermata and Buminantia, or between the Tapir or Palceotherium, 

 and the latter order of mammalia. The hippopotamus of this sandstone 

 appears to be a new species, having six incisive teeth, besides other pe- 

 culiarities, particularly in the proportion of the bones of the head : the 

 tusks also differ from those described by Cuvier in his Ossemens Fossiles. 

 The great depth at which the marl lies beneath the upper strata-, with 

 the discovery in it of remains of the horse, is an interesting fact. In the 

 sandstone strata the remains of the horse are by no means scarce. 

 There appears, however, to be a local disposition in the deposits of 

 these remains. In some places the hippopotamus, elephant, mastodon, 

 crocodile, tortoise, &c., are found in abundance, with the remains of 

 ruminants; in others the hippopotamus and the water reptiles are al- 

 most totally absent, and only the remains of ruminants and carnivora 

 occur ; ail tending to prove that these animals were destroyed on the 

 site of their habitats ; and that this former world was not more myste- 

 rious than the present ; that there were vast tracts of marsh and river, 

 with their attendant hippopotami and crocodiles in the waters, and ele - 

 phants and mastodons in the neighbourhood ; and that there were other 

 tracts free from water and marsh, and frequented by their natural inha- 

 bitants, ruminants, carnivora, &c. 



Dr. Falconer, in a note read at a meeting of the Asiatic Society of 

 Calcutta*, suggested the identity of this deposit with that near Frome, 

 some of the fossils from which have been so beautifully lithographed in 

 the Society's Transactionsf. The mastodons in the Sevahk strata are 

 in great abundance ; and as we have perfect skulls, we are enabled to 

 form some opinion of the dentition and the change of teeth. Three of 

 these skulls, now in my cabinet, have the front tooth worn, and the rear 



* Journal Asiatic Society, vol. iv. p. 58 ; elate of communication, 3d January 1835. 

 t Geological Transactious, Sntl Series, vol, iii. p. 377 et. sej. ; pi. 36 to 43. 



