THE CAVES AND BRECCIA OF MALTA 53 



involved in the catastrophe, shows that the event 

 was geologically, comparatively recent, as other facts 

 show it to have been sudden. 



Malta. 1 The drift deposits of Malta present on the 

 whole the same general features as those of Sicily, but 

 owing to its peculiar population of dwarf Elephants 

 with the small Hippopotamus, and the absence of the 

 ordinary Quaternary Mammalia, the faunal remai 1 

 have a distinct local colouring. They indicate that, 

 like the Channel Islands, Malta had been isolated 

 before the spread of the Rubble-drift ; but, neverthe- 

 less, it is evident that it did not escape the catastrophe 

 which affected the adjacent lands. On the south side 

 of the island escarped rocks rise abruptly to the height 

 of 200 to 300 feet. The lower part of these slopes 

 is covered by a consolidated red breccia consisting of 

 angular fragments of the adjacent rocks, mixed with 

 the red earth covering the hill-tops. This breccia, 

 which contains in places remains of the pigmy 

 Elephant, I take to be the representative of the 

 "Head" of the Channel coasts, only that in this 

 instance the height of the escarpment has prevented 

 its being entirely swamped and masked as were the 

 old cliffs of the Channel. It resembles closely the 

 breccia on the Mentone slopes, described at p. 36. 



Besides the ordinary bone-caves several Ossiferous 

 fissures, filled to the brim with red earth and angular 

 rock- fragments, and containing remains of the same 

 animals as those found in the caves, have been 



1 Admiral Spratt, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxiii. Dr. 

 Lcith Adams, The Nile Valley and Malta, p. 161. 



