50 SICILY : THE CAVE OF SAN CIRO 



bones " in the fissures of the limestone rocks on the 

 coast of Dalmatia, but detailed particulars are still 

 wanting. 



Sicily. This island presents phenomena still more 

 remarkable, and which, as in the case of Gibraltar, 

 have been investigated by several competent observers. 1 

 Though the osseous breccia is in close proximity to, 

 and has been described as, a Cave deposit, the connec- 

 tion seems to be merely accidental, the breccia, like 

 the Argile d blocaux of Belgium, only facing and 

 partially obstructing the entrance (ante, p. 34). It 

 does not really belong to the Cave deposits, but is, I 

 imagine, the equivalent to our Rubble-drift. 



The chief localities, which centre on the hills around 

 Palermo, arrest attention from the extraordinary 

 quantity of bones of Hippopotami (in complete heca- 

 tombs) which have there been found. Twenty tons 

 of these bones were shipped from around the one 

 cave of San Giro, near Palermo, within the first six 

 months of exploiting them, and they were so fresh 

 that they were sent to Marseilles to furnish animal 

 charcoal for use in the sugar factories. How could 

 this bone breccia have been accumulated ? No pre- 

 daceous animals could have brought together and left 

 such a collection of bones, for though Hycence lived on 

 the island, they have left no trace of their presence, nor 

 marks of their teeth in this wonderful mass of bones, 

 which would certainly not have escaped the animal's 



1 The Abbe Scina, Rapporto sulle Ossa Fossili di Mardolce, 

 Palermo, 1831 ; Dr. Christie, Phil. Mag. for Oct. 1831 ; Dr. 

 Falconer, Quart. Journ. Geo. Soc., vol. xvi., p. 99. 



