1840.] 



On Fossil Qnadrumana, 



305 



more recent or superficial deposits were in progress of formation. If we 

 refer to the remote epochs when the climate was suitable, and when 

 genera now associated with the Monkeys were abundant, it is easy to 

 conceive that the latter might have existed in numbers, without their 

 remains being entombed. It requires in all instances many unconnected 

 circumstances for the preservation of organic bodies, and their subse- 

 quent disclosure. Amongst the most important of these are the habits 

 and organization of the animals themselves. As in the case of birds, it 

 might be predicated, that this lucky concurrence of circumstances would 

 be rare with quadrumanous remains. The very perfection in the orga- 

 nization of the Monkey entails, as a consequence, that his solid frame 

 should seldom continue to indicate the previous existence of the indivi- 

 dual. His admirable agility and social habits protect him against most 

 aggressions. A flood might suffocate in their dens, over a large tract of 

 country, the burrowing tribes ; and might sweep from under the feet of 

 the monkey hundreds of its herbivorous and predaceous fellow-tenants of 

 the forest, and bury them in the near shingle or far-distant estuary, or 

 drown and deposit them in the stagnant swamp — while he would remain 

 secure. The tree on which he was perched might totter, and yield to 

 the undermining current, and he still escape and feed on his wonted 

 fruits, undisturbed by the destruction around. When the debt of na- 

 ture comes to be paid, his carcase falls to the ground, and immediately 

 becomes the prey of the numerous predaceous scavengers of torrid re- 

 gions, th e Hyaena, the Chacal, and the Wolf. So speedily does this oc- 

 cur, that in India, where Monkeys occupy, in large societies, mango 

 groves around villages, unmolested and cherished by man, the traces of 

 casualties among them are so rarely seen, that the simple Hindoo be- 

 lieves that they bury their dead by night. 



When the ancient races of India began to open upon us in the new 

 forms and the exuberant variety which the fossils of the Sewalik Hillg 

 exhibit, we were early led to anticipate that some trace of quadruman- 

 ous animals would soon be met with to perfect a series, which would be 

 incomplete without them. Several months ago we became possessed of 

 a solitary specimen, which put the matter, in our own minds, beyond all 

 doubt. W^e deferred making it public, however, in the hope of soon find- 

 ing specimens of the cranium and teeth ; being unwilling to rest the an- 

 nouncement on any thing less characteristic. That chance has since 

 fallen to our fellow- labourers in the pursuit, Messrs. Baker and Durand, 

 of the Bengal Engineers, who have lately discovered a specimen, consist- 

 ing of a considerable portion of the face, aud the whole series of molars 



