348 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



the great majority of them present definite forms, namely, long, narrow, and 

 thin ; having invariably a smooth conchoidal surface below, and above, a lon- 

 gitudinal ridge bevelled off right and left, or a concave facet replacing the 

 ridge; in the latter case presenting three facets on the upper side. The 

 author is of opinion that they closely resemble, in every detail of form, obsi- 

 dian knives from Mexico, and flint knives from Stonehenge, Arabia, and 

 elsewhere, and that they appear to have been formed by the dislamination, 

 as films, of the long angles of prismatic blocks of stone. These fragments 

 occur intimately intermixed with the bone splinters, shells, etc., in the roof 

 breccia, in very considerable abundance; amorphous fragments of flint are 

 comparatively rare, and no pebbles or blocks occur either within or without 

 the cave. But similar reddish flint, or chert, is found in the hippurite lime- 

 stone near Termini. In regard to the theory of the various conditions 

 observed in the Maccagnone Cave, the author considers that it has under- 

 gone several changes of level, and that the accumulation of bone breccia 

 below and outside is referable to a period when the cave was scarcely above 

 the level of the sea. Dr. Falconer points out the significance of the fact, 

 that although coprolites of hyaena were so abundant against the roof and 

 outside, none, or but very few, of the bones of hysena were observed in the 

 interior. He remarked, also, on the absence of the remains of small mam- 

 malia, such as rodents. He inferred that the cave, in its present form, and 

 with its present floor, had not been tenanted by these animals. The vast 

 number of these hippopotami implied that the physical condition of the 

 country must have been very different at no very distant period from what 

 obtains now. He considered that all deposits above the bone breccia had 

 been accumulated up to the roof by materials washed in from above through 

 numerous crevices or flues in the limestone, and that the uppermost layer, 

 consisting of the breccia of shells, bone splinters, siliceous objects, burnt clay, 

 bits of charcoal, and coprolites of hyaena, had been cemented to the roof by 

 stalagmitic infiltration. The entire condition of the large fragile Helices 

 proved that the effect had been produced by tranquil agency of water, as 

 distinct from any tumultuous action. There was nothing to indicate that 

 the different objects in the roof breccia were other than of contemporaneous 

 origin. Subsequently a great physical alteration in the contour, altering the 

 flow of superficial water, and of the subterranean springs, changed all the 

 conditions previously existing, and emptied out the whole of the loose inco- 

 herent contents, leaving only the portions agglutinated to the roof. The 

 wreck of these ejccta was visible in the patches of "cinere impastata," con- 

 taining fossil bones, below the mouth of the cavern. That a long period 

 must have operated in the extinction of the hyaena, cave-lion, and other fos- 

 sil species, is certain; but no index remains for its measurement. The 

 author would call the careful attention of cautious geologists to the inferen- 

 cesthat the Maccagnone Cave was filled up to the roof within the human 

 period, so that a thick layer of bone splinters, teeth, land-shells, coprolites of 

 hyaena, and human objects, was agglutinated to the roof by the infiltration 

 of water holding lime in solution; that subsequently, and within the human 

 period, such a great amount of change took place in the physical configura- 

 tion of the district as to have caused the cave to be Avashed out and emptied 

 of its contents, excepting the floor breccia, and the patches of material ce- 

 mented to the roof and since coated with additional stalagmite. 



In connection with the above paper, and at the same meeting of the Soci- 

 ety, Mr. Prestwich gave in a few words the results of the examination of 



