308 



On Fossil Quadrumana. 



[Oct. 



Gangeftcus,* respectively the Magar and Gavial, two species which at 

 the present day inhabit the quiet waters of the Ganges. Here then are 

 two most instructive facts : Quadrumana eo-existed with a member of 

 the oldest ascertained pachydermatous genus of Europe ; and two rep- 

 tiles now the contemporaries of man in the East, lived, and may have 

 laved, in the same waters along with a species of one of the mammifer- 

 ous genera which characterise the Eocene period of the West ; — affording 

 another illustration of constancy in the order of nature, of an identity of 

 condition in the earth of the olden time with what it exhibits now, and 

 of the invariableness of organized forms. The two, decurrent ridges on 

 the face which specifically distinguish the C. biporcatus of the present day, 

 are as marked and distinct on the individuals which existed perhaps 

 centuries of centuries ago ; and an ankle bone of the Sewalik fossil 

 Monkey so closely resembles that of a living species, that it is difficult 

 to explain the difference. 



The Sewalik fossils abound in monuments of this sort. Th^re is a 

 mixture of the new and of the old, of the past and of the present, of 

 familiar with surprising forms, together with a numerical richness, such 

 as no other explored region has exhibited within so comparatively limit- 

 ed a space. The Camel, f the Antelope, and Anoplotherium, have 

 been found, intermixed with each other in the same bed. There are 

 remains of the Elephant, Mastodon, Hippopotara*is|, Anthracotherium, 

 E.hinoceros§, Hog, and Horse ; the Tapir alone of the large existing 

 Pachydermata being without a representative. In the Sivatherium|| 

 is seen a huge Ruminant exceeding in size the largest Rhinoceros ; it 

 is also armed with four enormous sheathed horns, divided and foliafed 

 like the Dicranocerine Antelopes, and able to contend for mastery with 

 the Mastodon. Contrasted with him in the same family is the puny 



* Known to us by specimens comprising the whole of the cranium and muzzle. They 

 do not diffeit more from the existing individuals than these do from one another in vari- 

 eties dependent on age and sex. Asiatic Researches, Vol. xix. Part II., Art. II, 



+ Camelus Sivalensis (Nob.), Asiatic Researches, Vol. xix. Part II., Art. X., a species 

 of the size of the existing Camel, 



t Asiatic Res., Art. III. Hippopotamus Sivalensis (Nob. & H. dissimilis. Nob.). 



I Journal of the Asiatic Society, Vol. iv. p. 706, and vol. v. p. 486. 



II Asiatic Research, ut supra. Art. I. Sivatherium Gtganieum (Nob.). Since the memoir 

 was printed, Col. Colvin, Bengal Engineers, has got a specimen of the cranium with the 

 bases of the four horns attached, and we have in our possessioa an almost entire rear 

 horn, which has given the characters noted above. 



