large in the posterior direction, and the general expression probably dull and heavy. The teeth were rather fitted for bruising and crushing the branches and twigs of trees, than for masticating the more succulent and coarser food of the rhinoceros; but the animal must have had a compound stomach, resembling, in the peculiar and typical habit connected with this structure, the ordinary ruminants, though the habit was not perhaps developed to quite so great an extent.

Fig. 142

SIVATHERIUM.

The most remarkable fact with regard to this animal is connected with another point of structure by which it approximates the ruminating tribe: I mean the possession of horns. Not only was the Sivathere provided with one pair above the brows, but it had another pair placed more towards the back of the head, in the manner observed in some of the four

horned antelopes. In the Sivatherium, however, (unlike the antelope,) one pair of horns resembled those of the cow, and this pair was placed just between and above the orbits. The bony cores on which the true horns were placed render it quite certain that the horny sheath must have been of very large size. The other pair of horns were palmated and branching, and resembled rather the horns of the elk than those of any other animal. They also were large and very massive, and were placed behind the pair already described. The form, the proportion, and the singular appendages of the head of this animal, render it extremely interesting as a link between the ruminants and pachyderms; but the nature of the extremities, which were probably of moderate proportions, is still obscure, and requires further elucidation. The fragments of the animal from the Sewalik hills are accompanied by the remains of pachyderms, and are in a very perfect state, but other very nearly allied generic forms have also been found at Perim Island, in the Gulf of Cambay.

Amongst the animals associated with the Sivatherium, there were several pachyderms of large size, including at least seven species of elephants and mastodons, forming an almost perfect species, uniting the whole group of these animals by successive links, two of which, the Asiatic and African species, still exist. There is also a Dinotherium, at least as large as, and probably larger than, the species found in the Rhine valley. There are several species of hippopotamus, some of large, and others of very small size; more than one rhinoceros, distinct from either of the existing forms; several species of the genus Equus (horse, ass, and

zebra), varying in size from the ordinary dimensions of the horse to a little creature not larger than the gazelle. To this list may be added also more than one species of giraffe, of somewhat stouter make than the existing species, and of larger size; besides a great multitude of antelopes and deer, and several of the Bos tribe. The Carnivora included a large extinct genus, probably fiercer and more powerful than the tiger, and resembling the Machairodus, already described as occurring with the cavern bones in England and Europe. There were also numerous other feline animals, a colossal bear, and several remains referable to the dog tribe and the hyæna.

All these animals were either associated together at the same period, or succeeded one another in groups occupying the land then existing; but almost the whole of those, whose remains are thus found, have now become extinct. The following figure (143) represents part of the lower jaw and tooth of one of the extinct elephants of this period, and is copied from Capt. Cautley and Dr. Falconer's great work, already referred to.

The great Indian fossil fauna, which lasted so long without any interruption, was thus at length broken up and brought to a definite conclusion, while that of the western districts appears to have only undergone some modification, involving the destruction of the more prominent groups. This, perhaps, was the natural and necessary result of the nature of the changes effected; these changes having altered the original position of the Indian beds to a very great extent, and having been accompanied by the outburst of a larger quantity of melted rock than has been ob

served in any one district elsewhere on the surface of the globe. Not less than two hundred thousand square miles of country are there entirely covered

with basalt of comparatively modern date, and great lines of elevated land also of modern elevation now form lofty and extensive tracts; the Ghauts of southwestern as well as those of eastern India, the central or Vindhya range, the northern Circars, and other mountain ranges have all been formed, and vast tertiary deposits, of which the Kunkur and the Regur or cotton soil of India are among the most remarkable, have been spread out over the surface. These, it is probable, are all different results of one system of upheaval, which did not terminate till the elevation of the loftiest mountain tract in the world was effected; and these changes are certainly of comparatively recent date, many of them having gone on even during the historic period. Probably much of the low land, and even some of that having considerable elevation in the plains of central Asia, has only at a very recent period emerged from the sea.

India is connected geologically with Europe in very distinct ways: partly by the continuation, at intervals, of the mountain chain of the Himalayas, in which secondary rocks form the central axis; partly by several tertiary or very late secondary districts, extending from Cutch, near the mouth of the Indus, by Arabia, into Egypt; and partly by the very modern alluvial and sandy tracts of the Caspian, passing into Siberia.

We

Much remains to be made out with regard to all these links, but much also has been done; and there can be little question that the great sandy deserts of Arabia and Africa, and the steppes of Tartary, have been at no very distant period beneath the sea. The continuous volcanic band commencing in Asia Minor, and traceable through the Mediterranean, by the Greek Islands, into south Italy, has also been concerned very intimately with the elevation of the tract both to the north and south of it. may even hope some day to connect by a perfect series the middle and newer tertiary formations of the old continents in the northern hemisphere; and perhaps the time is not very far distant, when, the Russian and Tartar provinces in northern Asia being surveyed, and some glimpse obtained with regard to the geological structure of China, a complete history may be worked out, defining the limits of change during the tertiary period throughout this vast

tract.

In the way of tertiary geology, many parts of Australia appear to promise matter for investigation, as interesting as that of the better and longer known continents, and on almost as grand a scale. At pre