Mi. 47-] CAVES NEAR PALERMO. 121 



Society. They are not yet arrived. Pengelly has so much to 

 do, and is, poor fellow, just now greatly troubled by the failing 

 health of a daughter. We had an interview with Vivian, which 

 ended amicably, and by his consenting to withhold the publication 

 of his notes on Kent's Cave, to which are appended numerous 

 notes respecting the Brixham Cave. Austen and I do not exactly 

 agree about our report ; but nothing less will satisfy rne than a 

 full and complete examination of every part of the cave (now 

 worked), the emptying to the very bottom of everything in the 

 several galleries. 



I am very glad you stopped at Abbeville, and am thereby fully 

 confirmed to visit that locality at an early opportunity, and, as 

 you suggest, to make the acquaintance of M. Boucher de Perthes. 

 I trust you are enjoying fine weather, good health, and many 

 caves. Believe me, my dear Falconer, very truly yours, 



Jos. PKESTWICH. 



The wish expressed in the last sentence of the above 

 letter with regard to caves was literally fulfilled. It 

 found Falconer at Palermo in ecstasy about his dis- 

 covery of flint implements associated with fossil bones 

 in the cave of Maccagnone. He was also zealously 

 engaged in making collections of hippopotamus teeth, 

 which lay scattered in great quantity, with a few 

 molars and bones of other extinct animals, outside the 

 " Grotto di San Giro" or "Mare Dolce," near Palermo, 

 and where the women and children gathered them on 

 the field in front of the cave in the intervals between 

 his daily visits. It was a comical scene when an 

 infant in arms, prompted by its mother, held out a 

 tooth of hippopotamus to Dr Falconer, clasped by its 

 tiny fingers. On one occasion forty-two mothers and 

 children awaited his arrival, each provided with spoil. 

 The mothers thought themselves liberally rewarded 

 with a few quattrini, the smallest Sicilian coin. 



April was the date in 1859 when Prestwich pro- 



