294 Geological Society, 



bones into fissures high np in the caverns and placed them at all 

 angles in the deposit, must have acted from the entrance inwards, 

 and the only force which seems to meet these conditions is marine 

 action. The following seem to the author to be the changes indicated 

 by the deposits. The lowest in the caverns, consisting almost entirelj' 

 of local materials, must have been introduced by a river which flowed 

 in the valley at a very much higher level than does the little stream 

 at present. Gradually, as the valley was being excavated, and the 

 caverns were above the reach of floods, hyaenas and other beasts of 

 prey occupied them, and conveyed the remains of other animals into 

 them. Man also must have been present at some part of this period. 

 Gradually the land became depressed, the animals disappeared, sta- 

 lagmite was formed, and the sea at last entered the caverns, filling 

 them up with sands and pebbles, and burying also the remains not 

 washed out. Floating ice deposited in this sea the fragments of 

 rocks derived from northern sources, and these became mixed with 

 local rocks and clays brought down from surrounding areab\ The 

 greater part of the Boulder-clay in the Yale of Clwyd was probably 

 deposited as the land was being raised out of this Mid-Glacial sea. 

 During the process of elevation the caverns became again disturbed 

 by marine action and the upper fine reddish loam and the laminated 

 clays were deposited. It seemed to the author impossible to avoid 

 the conclusion that these caverns must have been submerged, and 

 afterwards elevated to their present height of about 400 feet above 

 the level of the sea, since they were occupied by Palaeolithic man 

 and the Pleistocene animals. 



2. " Description of the Cranium of a new Species of Erinaceus 

 from the Upper Miocene of (Eningen." By E. Lydekker, B.A., 



F.G.S. 



The Author described the palatal half of the cranium of a large 

 species of Erinaceus from the Upper Miocene of ffiniugen, which he 

 regarded as closely allied to the existing E. europceus, and proposed 

 to name E. cenhigensis. 



3. " On the Occurrence of the Crocodilian Genus Tomistoma in the 

 Miocene of the Maltese Islands." By 11. Lydekker, Esq., B.A., 

 F.G.S. 



The Author described the anterior portion of the cranial rostrum 

 of a Crocodilian from the Miocene of Malta, to which Prof. Sir E. 

 Owen has given the MS. name of Melitoscmrus chamjisoides. The 

 author considered that there Avere no charactei'S by which the spe- 

 cimen could be generically distinguished from Tomistoma. Mention 

 was made of a second crocodilian skull from the Miocene of the 

 Maltese Islands, and of a third from Lower Austria, both of which 

 the aixthor thought might be included in the same genus. 



