176 OSSIFEROUS CAVES IN SICILY. chap. x. 



materials reaching to the roof, and evidently washed in from 

 above, through crevices in the limestone. In this upper and 

 newer breccia Dr. Falconer discovered flint knives, bone 

 splinters, bits of charcoal, burnt clay, and other objects in- 

 dicating human intervention, mingled with entire land shells, 

 teeth of horses, coprolites of hyenas, and other bones, the 

 whole agglutinated to one another and to the roof by the 

 infiltration of water holding lime in solution. The perfect 

 condition of the large fragile helices (Helix vermiculata) 

 afforded satisfactory evidence, saj'S Dr. Falconer, that the 

 various articles were carried into the cave by the tranquil 

 agency of water, and not by any tumultuous action. At a 

 subsequent period other geographical changes took place, so 

 that the cave, after it had been filled, was washed out again, 

 or emptied of its contents with the exception of those patches 

 of breccia which, being cemented together by stalactite, still 

 adhere to the roof* 



Baron Anca, following up these investigations, explored, in 

 1859, another cave at Mondello, Avest of Palermo, and north 

 of Mount Gallo, whei-e he discovered molars of the living 

 African elephant, and afterwards additional specimens of the 

 same species in the neighboring grotto of Olivella. In re- 

 ference to this elephant, Dr. Falconer has reminded us that 

 the distance between the nearest part of Sicily and the coast 

 of Africa, between Marsala and Cape Bon, is not more than 

 eighty miles, and Admiral Sm3-th, in his Memoir on the 

 Mediterranean, states (p. 499) that there is a subaqueous 

 plateau, named by him Adventure Bank, uniting Sicily to 

 Africa by a succession of ridges Avhich are not more than 

 from forty to fifty fathoms under water.-}- Sicil}' therefore 

 might be reunited to Africa by movements of upheaval not 



* Note, Quarterly Geological Journal, dent of Geological Society, Anniver- 

 vol. xvi. p. 105, 18C0. sary Address, February, 1861, p. 42, 



f Note, cited by Mr. Horner, Prcsi- 



