SOME INDIAN MONSTERS.
"What a glorious privilege it would be, could we live
back--were it but for an instant--into those ancient times
when these extinct animals peopled the earth! to see them all
congregated together in one grand natural menagerie--these
mastodons and elephants, so numerous in species, toiling
their ponderous forms and trumpeting their march in countless
herds through the swamps and reedy forests!"--Hugh Falconer.
It is a far cry back, against the sun's path, from Wyoming and the
flanks of the Rocky Mountains to the sacred Himalayas--the "abode of
snow"--of Northern India. But if the reader will follow us to that
country, we will endeavour to describe two or three out of many
strange and now lost forms of life brought to light from the famous
Sivalik Hills, on the southern border of the Himalayas, for the
knowledge of which Science is greatly indebted to a very distinguished
palæontologist, the late Mr. Hugh Falconer. Together with his friend
Captain Cautley (afterwards Sir Proby Cautley), he explored this
region, and their joint arduous labours show that it was at one time
inhabited by a very large and varied group of quadrupeds, together
with many birds, reptiles, fishes, mollusca, and crustaceans.
In this region there lived, throughout a considerable part of the
Tertiary period, elephants, of various species, whose skulls and bones
were found in great numbers; mastodons (a closely allied form); and
several species of hippopotamus, rhinoceros, and horse: among
ruminants, species of the camel, the ox, the stag, and the antelope,
together with a colossal creature unknown before, the Sivatherium,
which has never been found elsewhere; a huge tortoise, and various
species of carnivora, rodents, and apes.
With regard to the geography of the region, it appears that the
continent of India, at an early period of the Tertiary era, was a
large island, situated in a bight, or bay, formed by the Himalayas and
the Hindoo Koosh range. The valleys of the Ganges and Indus formed a
long estuary, into which the drainage of the Himalayas poured its silt
and alluvium. Later on, an upheaval took place, converting these
straits into the plains of India, connecting them with the ancient
island, and forming the existing continent. The large and varied forms
whose remains now lie "sealed within the iron hills" then spread over
the continent, from the Irrawaddi to the mouths of the Indus, two
thousand miles; and north-west to the Jhelum, fifteen hundred miles.
After a long interval of repose, another great upheaval took place,
which threw up a strip of the plains of India, crumpled and ridged it
up to form the Sivalik Hills, and at the same time increased the
elevation of the Himalayas by many thousands of feet.
It would be easy to show that such events as these must have been
followed by changes in climate, for the climate of a region depends
largely on its physical features--the proportion of land and water,
the presence of hills and mountain ranges, and their height; and it is
considered probable that the physical changes above mentioned helped
to bring about the extinction of this most interesting and ancient
fauna. Throughout the latter part of the Tertiary era it is well known
to geologists that the climate of Europe was becoming gradually
colder, until at last a glacial period, or "Ice Age," was experienced,
during which Northern Europe was subjected to an arctic climate, and
the great ice-sheet seems to have been slowly retiring and melting
away in the early part of the Stone Age. But in India there has been
no such decrease in temperature, and it enjoyed in Tertiary times as
warm a climate as it now has, so that both animal and vegetable life
continued to flourish vigorously.
By the Sivalik (or Sewalik) Hills is meant that range of lower
elevations which stretches along the south-west foot of the Himalayas,
for the greater portion of their extent from the Indus to the
Brahmapootra, where those rivers respectively debouche from the hills
into the plains of India. It extends for nearly a thousand miles, and
it appears to have been entirely built up of alluvial _débris_, washed
down from the Himalayas into that sea which we have already referred
to as having once separated the plains of India from the great range
now forming its northern boundary. The strata thus formed were
subsequently upheaved to form the Sivalik Hills. Thus we see that one
mountain range may help to form another one running parallel to
itself. The name is derived from Siva, or Mahadeo, the Hindoo god;
these hills, as well as the Himalayas, being connected in Hindoo
mythology in various ways with the history of Siva.
Dr. Falconer and Captain Cautley soon found that they had "struck oil"
in the Sivalik Hills, or, in other words, had come upon one of
Nature's great graveyards, full of material most valuable to the
palæontologist--one which, extending for hundreds of miles, might
perhaps prove to be as rich in relics of the world's "lost creations"
as the lake-basin in Wyoming, where Professor Marsh discovered his
Dinocerata and other extinct types.
Let us give Dr. Falconer and Captain Cautley their due. They found
themselves suddenly confronted with a perfect mine of wealth, in a far
country, where the ordinary means resorted to by men of science for
determining extinct types and species, by comparison with living
forms, were not to be obtained, for there were no libraries and no
museums of comparative anatomy in that remote quarter of India. But
Dr. Falconer was not the man to be baffled by such drawbacks, which
would have deterred and discouraged some men. He appealed to the
living forms that abounded in the surrounding forests, rivers, and
swamps, and took toll of them to supply the want. Nature herself
became his library and his museum. Skeletons of all kinds were
prepared; the extinct forms he collected were compared with their
nearest living allies, and a valuable series of "Memoirs" by himself
and Captain Cautley was the result.[43]
[43] These appeared in the _Asiatic Researches_, the _Journal of the
Asiatic Society of Bengal_, and in the _Geological Transactions_ of
the London Geological Society.
The Sivalik explorations soon attracted attention in Europe, and in
1837 the Wollaston Medal, in duplicate, was awarded for their
discoveries to Dr. Falconer and Captain Cautley by the Geological
Society, the fountain of geological honours in England; while the
value of the distinction was enhanced by the terms in which the
President, Sir Charles Lyell, was pleased to announce the award. This
is what he said: "When Captain Cautley and Dr. Falconer first
discovered these remarkable remains, their curiosity was awakened, and
they felt convinced of their great scientific value; but they were not
versed in fossil osteology [the study of bones], and, being stationed
on the remote confines of our Indian possessions, they were far
distant from any living authorities or books on comparative anatomy to
which they could refer. The manner in which they overcame these
disadvantages, and the enthusiasm with which they continued for years
to prosecute their researches, when thus isolated from the scientific
world, are truly admirable. Dr. Royle has permitted me to read a part
of their correspondence with him, when they were exploring the Sivalik
Mountains, and I can bear witness to their extraordinary energy and
perseverance. From time to time they earnestly requested that Cuvier's
works might be sent out to them, and expressed their disappointment
when, from various accidents, these volumes failed to arrive. The
delay, perhaps, was fortunate; for, being thrown entirely upon their
own resources, they soon found a museum of comparative anatomy in the
surrounding plains, hills, and jungles, where they slew the wild
tigers, buffaloes, antelopes, and other Indian quadrupeds, of which
they preserved the skeletons, besides obtaining specimens of all the
reptiles which inhabited that region. They were compelled to see and
think for themselves, while comparing and discriminating the different
recent and fossil bones, and reasoning on the laws of comparative
osteology, till at length they were fully prepared to appreciate the
lessons which they were taught by the works of Cuvier."
In 1840 Captain Cautley presented his vast collection, the result of
ten years' unremitting labour and great personal outlay, to the
British Museum, the Geological Society having declined to accept it,
as it was beyond their means of accommodation. Its extent and value
may be estimated from the fact that it filled 214 large chests, the
average weight of each of which amounted to 4 cwt., and that the
charges on its transmission to England alone, which were defrayed by
the Government of India, amounted to £602. Dr. Falconer's selected
collection was divided between the India House and the British Museum;
the greater part was presented to the former, but a large number of
unique or choice specimens, required to fill up blanks, were presented
to the latter. The greater part of the specimens in the British Museum
were still unarranged and embedded in their matrix. In 1844 a memorial
was presented to the Court of Directors of the Honourable East India
Company, pointing out the desirability of having the specimens in the
national collection prepared, arranged, and displayed, and also of
publishing an illustrated work, which would convey to men of science
in both hemispheres a knowledge of the contents of the Sivalik Hills,
and suggesting Dr. Falconer as the person most fitted to superintend
the work. The Government of the time, under Sir Robert Peel, made a
grant of £1000 to enable the collection to be exhibited in the British
Museum, and Dr. Falconer was entrusted with the work. Besides this, a
large illustrated work, entitled _Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis_, was
begun, but owing to the demands upon Dr. Falconer's time, and his
subsequent death, this work was not completed, although nine out of
the twelve parts originally contemplated were finished. The great
Indian collection of fossils, mainly the gift of Sir Proby Cautley
(the specimens of which, stupendous in their size, and in fine
preservation, were prepared, identified, and arranged by Dr.
Falconer), has long constituted one of the chief ornaments of the
collection at the British Museum--now removed to the Natural History
Museum, Cromwell Road, South Kensington.
Other collections of fossils from the Sivalik Hills have been
presented to the Museum of Edinburgh University by Colonel Colvin, and
to the Oxford University by Mr. Walter Ewer. When it is remembered
that these collections have since been increased tenfold, and that the
remains were either excavated or found in the _débris_ of cliffs, and
that the explored surface bears a very small proportion to that which
has not yet been investigated, one may conceive how prodigious must
have been the number of animals that lived together in the former
plains of India, even when every allowance is made for the bones
having accumulated during many successive generations in the Sivalik
strata.
From this large and important collection we select two of special
interest for brief notice here, namely, the Sivatherium,[44] and an
immense tortoise known as the Colossochelys.
[44] From _Siva_, the Hindoo god; and Greek, _therion_, a beast.
The first of these monsters was a remarkable form of animal, unlike
anything living. In size it surpassed the largest rhinoceros, and was
bigger than any living ruminant. Altogether, it was one of the most
remarkable forms of life yet detected in the more recent strata. It
had two pairs of horns on its head--two short and quite simple ones in
front, and two larger ones, more or less expanded, behind them. From
the character of these long horn-cores, which are prolongations of the
skull, it may be concluded that the Sivatherium was a gigantic
ruminant with four horns. A cast of the original skull, with the
horn-cores restored from actual parts, in the collection and
elsewhere, has been placed on a stand in the centre of the long
gallery of fossil vertebrates at South Kensington (Stand I) near to
the case containing the skull and other portions of the skeleton (see
Fig. 46). There is also hanging on the wall near, a clever painting by
Berjeau, representing the creature as it may have appeared when alive.
The entire skeleton, partly restored, is shown in Fig. 47, with a
conjectural outline of the body. A hornless skull of a nearly allied
animal from the same strata and locality is placed with that of the
Sivatherium, and was considered by Dr. Falconer and others to be the
skull of the hornless female (also represented as such in the above
picture referred to); but is now, by more recent writers, regarded as
a separate genus, viz. the Helladotherium, so named because the
remains were first discovered at Pikermi, near Athens, Greece (ancient
Hellas). (See Plate XVI.)
[Illustration: Fig. 46.--Skull of _Sivatherium giganteum_, from the
Sivalik Hills, Northern India.]
[Illustration: Plate XVI.
A GIGANTIC HOOFED MAMMAL, SIVATHERIUM GIGANTEUM.
From the Sivalik Hills, Northern India.
An allied form, _Helladotherium_, is seen on the left]
In the Sivatherium we have a new type which seems to connect together
two families at the present time well marked off from each other,
namely, the giraffe and the antelope. Its teeth resemble those of the
former animal, while in its four horns it resembles a certain antelope
(Antilope quadricornis). The head in certain respects shows
resemblances to that of the ox, but the upper lip must have been
prolonged into a short proboscis, or trunk, like that of the tapir.
The form and proportions of the jaw agree closely with the
corresponding parts of a buffalo. But no known ruminant, fossil or
existing, has a jaw of such large size, the average dimensions being
more than double those of a buffalo. The skull is the best known part
of the animal, but Captain Cautley came across some of the bones of
the limbs.
[Illustration: Fig. 47.--Skeleton of _Sivatherium giganteum_.]
The Colossochelys atlas,[45] or gigantic fossil tortoise of India,
supplies a fit representative of the tortoise which sustained the
elephant and the infant world in the fables of the Pythagorean and
Hindoo cosmogonies. It is highly interesting to trace back to its
probable source a matter of belief like this, so widely connected
with the speculations of an early period of the human race.
[45] Greek, _Colossos_, Colossus, and _chelus_, tortoise. Atlas was
supposed to sustain the world on his shoulders.
The carapace, or buckler, of the shell of this crawling monster is
similar in general form to the large land-tortoises of the present
day.[46] The shell is estimated to have been at least six feet long.
The limbs were probably similar to those of a modern land-tortoise,
and the limb-bones are of huge size--a single humerus, or arm-bone,
measuring 28 inches. Probably the foot was as large as that of a
rhinoceros. A restored cast of a young individual stands at the West
end of the fossil reptile gallery, South Kensington (Stand Z on plan).
Length of the shield, 10 feet[47] (see Fig. 48).
[46] Giant tortoises of the present day live on islands--where they
have escaped competition with large carnivora and other foes--such as
the Aldabra group, N.W. of Madagascar, in the Mascarenes, which
comprise Mauritius and Rodriguez; and the Galapagos, or "Tortoise
Islands," off the coast of South America. When Mr. Darwin visited the
latter islands he saw the relics, as it were, of a family of huge
tortoises, which lived there in abundance a few years before, and was
able to verify many interesting facts which had been recorded by
Porter in 1813, who stated that some of those captured by him weighed
from 300 to 400 lbs., and that on one island they were 5-1/2 feet
long. Those of one island differed from those of another. Some had
long necks. After Mr. Darwin's visit the process of extermination went
on. At the present time it is most probable that the gigantic
tortoises are very rare where formerly they were so abundant. One of
these great tortoises is that of Abingdon Island, in the Galapagos
Archipelago, of which there is a fine stuffed specimen in the Natural
History Museum (Reptile Gallery). It has a very long neck, and a small
flat-topped head with a short snout. It weighed originally 201 lbs.
The Indian tortoises of the present day are not of large size. See the
fine specimens in the Natural History Museum--Reptile Gallery (left
wing of the building).
[47] Dr. Falconer's estimate was much too great, so that this model is
too large. Mr. Lydekker prefers to drop the generic term
Colossochelys, and call it Testudo Atlas. In length it was only
one-third greater than Testudo elephantina of the Galapagos Islands.
The first fossil remains of this colossal tortoise were discovered by
Dr. Falconer and Captain Cautley in 1835, in the Tertiary strata of
the Sivalik Hills. At the period when it was living--probably the
Pliocene--there was great abundance and variety of life on the scene,
for its remains were found to be associated with those of many great
quadrupeds, such as the elephant, mastodon, rhinoceros, horse, camel,
giraffe, sivatherium, and many other mammals. The Sivalik fauna also
included a great number of reptiles, such as crocodiles, lizards, and
snakes.
[Illustration: Fig. 48.--Restored figure of gigantic tortoise,
_Colossochelys atlas_, from the Sivalik Hills, Northern India.]
The greater part of the remains of the Colossochelys atlas were
collected during a period of eight or nine years, along a range of
about a hundred miles of hilly country. Consequently, they belong to a
large number of individuals, varying in size and age. They were met
with in crushed fragments, contained in upheaved strata, which have
undergone considerable disturbance, so that it is improbable that an
entire uncrushed specimen will ever be found. When the first
fragments, in huge shapeless masses, were found by the discoverers,
they were utterly at a loss what to make of them, and for many months
could do nothing more than look upon them in bewildered and nearly
hopeless admiration. But no sooner was the clue found to a single
specimen than every fragment moved into its place so as to form a
consistent whole.
It is not possible at present to say, with any degree of certainty,
whether this colossal tortoise survived into the human period; but at
least there is no evidence against the idea, and Dr. Falconer shows it
is quite possible that the frequent allusions to a gigantic tortoise
in Hindoo and other mythologies are to be explained on the supposition
that the creature was seen by the men of a prehistoric age. Other
species of tortoises and turtles that were coeval with the
Colossochelys have lived on to the present day. So have other
reptiles, for some of the crocodiles now living in India appear to be
identical with the forms dug out of the Sivalik Hills. In the absence
of direct geological evidence, we must fall back on traditions.
Now, there are traditions connected with the speculations of nearly
all Eastern nations with regard to the world (cosmogonies) that refer
to a tortoise of such gigantic size as to be associated with the
elephant in their fables. The question therefore arises--Was this
tortoise a creature of the imagination, or was the idea of it drawn
from a living reality? Besides a tradition current among the Iroquois
Indians of North America, referring to the important share which the
tortoise had in the formation of the earth, there are several cases in
ancient history bearing on the same point. Thus, we find in the
Pythagorean doctrine the infant world represented as having been
placed on the back of an elephant, which was sustained on a huge
tortoise. Greek and Hindoo mythologies were undoubtedly related to
each other, and accordingly we find in the Hindoo accounts of the
second Avatar of Vishnoo, that the ocean is said to have been churned
by means of the mountain placed on the back of the king of the
tortoises, and the serpent Asokee used as the churning-rope. Again,
Vishnoo was said to have assumed the form of the tortoise, and to have
sustained the created world on his back to make it stable. This fable
has taken such a firm hold of the Hindoos, that to this day they
believe the world rests on the back of a tortoise (see Fig. 49). In
the narratives of the feasts of the bird-demigod, Garuda, the
tortoise again figures largely, and Guruda is said on one occasion
to have appeased his hunger at a certain lake where an elephant and a
tortoise were fighting.
[Illustration: Fig. 49.--The elephant victorious over the tortoise,
supporting the world, and unfolding the mysteries of the _Fauna
Sivalensis_. From a sketch in pencil in one of Dr. Falconer's
note-books, by the late Professor Edward Forbes.]
These three instances, in each of which there is a distinct reference
to a gigantic form of tortoise, comparable in size with the elephant,
suggest the question whether we are to regard the idea as a mere
fiction of the imagination, like the Minotaur or the Chimæra, or as
founded on a living tortoise. Dr. Falconer points out that it seems
unlikely that such fables could have been suggested by any of the
small species of tortoises now living in India, and consequently is
inclined to think that the monster was seen by man many centuries ago,
long before he began to write history. We have already alluded to the
large number of mammalian forms of life that were contemporary with
the Sivatherium and Colossochelys, but if we examine this old Sivalik
fauna we find it presents several very interesting features. In the
first place, it exhibits a wonderful richness and variety of forms,
compared to the living fauna of India. Take the pachydermata, for
instance--an old order established by Cuvier to include the
rhinoceros, hippopotamus, elephant, etc.--and we find there were, in
the period under consideration, about five times the number of species
now known in India. Elephants and mastodons, too, of various species
abounded. So it is with the ruminants; besides a large number of
species allied to those now living, such as the ox, buffalo, bison,
deer, antelope, musk-deer, and others, there were giraffes and camels,
as well as the strange Sivatherium. And so it is with the other
orders, such as carnivora, rodents, insectivora, etc.
Secondly, this great and varied fauna of the past shows a striking
resemblance to that of India at the present day. Darwin found the same
resemblance in South America; and now it is accepted as a general law,
that the living fauna of a country resembles its extinct fauna,
especially that of the latest geological period. Dr. Falconer found
that India's living fauna is but, as it were, a remnant of that which
it once possessed.
Thirdly, this extinct Sivalik fauna presents a singular mixture of old
and new forms. And lastly, it points to a very different geographical
distribution of animals. Thus the giraffe, the hippopotamus, and the
ostrich are _now_ confined to Africa. Facts such as these serve to
throw light on the geography of the past; but we cannot stay to
enlarge on that subject here.
Much might be said about the fossil elephants and mastodons from the
Sivalik Hills, so fully described by Dr. Falconer, but since chapters
xiii. and xiv. deal with elephants, we must reserve our remarks till
then, only alluding here to one striking form from the Sivalik Hills,
namely, the Elephas ganesa, the tusks of which were more than ten feet
in length, and much less curved than those of the mammoth. A very fine
specimen of the head and tusks may be seen in the gallery of fossil
mammals in the Natural History Museum (Gallery I, Stand D).
With the following eloquent passage from Dr. Falconer's "Memoirs," we
take leave of the remarkable Sivalik fauna, hoping that future
geologists will endeavour to follow his example and bring to light yet
other "lost creations" from that region, so rich in fossils, yet
comparatively unexplored. Would that the English Government could see
their way to follow the example of the United States, and send out a
scientific expedition to explore this wonderful region! There can be
no doubt that a rich harvest lies waiting there to be reaped.
"What a glorious privilege it would be, could we live back--were it
but for an instant--into those ancient times when these extinct
animals peopled the earth! to see them all congregated together in one
grand natural menagerie--these mastodons and elephants, so numerous in
species, toiling their ponderous forms and trumpeting their march in
countless herds through the swamps and reedy forests! to view the
giant Sivatherium, armed in front with four horns, spurning the
timidity of his race, and, ruminant though he be, proud in his
strength, and bellowing his sturdy career in defiance of all
aggression! And then the graceful giraffes, flitting their shadowy
forms like spectres through the trees, mixed with troops of large as
well as pigmy horses, and camels, antelopes, and deer! And then, last
of all, by way of contrast, to contemplate the colossus of the
tortoise race, heaving his unwieldy frame, and stamping his toilsome
march along plains which hardly look over strong to sustain him!
"Assuredly it would be a heart-stirring sight to behold! But although
we may not actually enjoy the effect of the living pageant, a still
higher order of privilege is vouchsafed to us. We have only to light
the torch of philosophy, to seize the clue of induction, and, like the
Prophet Ezekiel in the vision, to proceed into the valley of death,
when the graves open before us and render forth their contents; the
dry and fragmented bones run together, each bone to his bone; the
sinews are laid over, the flesh is brought on, the skin covers all,
and the past existence--_to the mind's eye_--starts again into being,
decked out in all the lineaments of life. 'He who calls that which
hath vanished back again into being, enjoys a bliss like that of
creating.' Such were the words of the philosophical Niebuhr, when
attempting to fill up the blanks in the fragmentary records of the
ancient Romans, whose period in relation to past time dates but as of
yesterday. How much more highly privileged, then, are we, who can
recall, as it were, the beings of countless remote ages, when man was
not yet dreamed of! not only this, but if we use discreetly the lights
which have been given to us, we may invoke the spirit of the winds,
and learn how _they_ were tempered to suit the natures of these
extinct beings."