April 1, 1901.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



i| 



the Tawny On I in co. nowii, In-laiul, was refi'iToJ to, and it was 

 thero ivmarkod tliat tho l>ii\i liail never before occurred in Ireland. 

 It now appctti-s lliat a gentleman in June last procnivd nine Tannv 

 Owls from tho >'e\v Forest and liberated them in co. Down. This 

 satisfaetorilv explains the pivsencc of the biril whii'h was shot in tho 

 cinmtv in November lait. It appeal's also that a number of Jays have 

 b«en liberated in the same way. The pnietiec of introducing birds 

 or animals foreign to a country and liberating them in that countrv 

 cannot bo too strongly condemned. From a naturalists' point of view 

 such an act is the deepest offence, and is likely to cause almost as 

 much harm to science as the exterminalion of a species in a country. 

 The movements and geographical distribution of birds and animals is 

 a ditlicult enough subject as it is without the interfering agency of 

 mankind. What will happen in Ireland through the act of this 

 " gentleman who takes some interest in ornithology " ■ All the future 

 records of Jays and Tawny Owls in the north of Ireland will be under 

 suspicion, and the study of the geographical distribution of the species 

 as far as this part of tho country is concerned will be at a standstill. 

 Tha introducer, moreover, added to his offence by not informing 

 naturalists of what he had done. Apart from this it would be of 

 interest to know who broke the law in procuring these young birds 

 from the New Forest. 



Winter occurrence of House Martin in Yorkshire {The Xafuralisf 

 March, IPOI. p. 74).— Mr. T. H. Nelson observes that a House 

 Martin appeared in front of " The t'lifl'e," Kedcar, on December the 

 ]4th last, and was seen at intervals, Hying to and fro, until the 2l)th. 

 of December. Although, of course, the majority of Martins have 

 travelled south before December, a few individuals, genera ly young 

 birds, are occasionally seen in December in mild seasons. The above, 

 howerer, is an exceptionally late occurrence for so far north. 



All contributions to the column, either in the way of notes 

 or photographs, should he forwarded to Habry F. Withebby, 

 (i£ 1, Eliot Place, Blacklieath, Kent. 



PRE-HISTORIC MAN IN THE 

 MEDITERRANEAN. 



CENTRAL 



By John H. Cooke, f.l.s., f.g.s., etc. 



It has long been a niatter of common belief that the 

 south of Italy and the northern coast of Africa are the 

 remnants of a land barrier which formerly divided the 

 Mediterranean into two basins, and connected the con- 

 tinents of Etuope and Africa. 



This barrier has existed from early geological times. 

 The nucleus of the Alps and Apennines consists of 

 Jurassic rocks, and prior to the subsidence that ushered 

 in the Cretaceous or Chalk period, a ridge of these rocks 

 extended above sea-level from the north of Italy, through 

 Sicily as far south as the island of Galita off the coast 

 of Tunis. 



During Miocene times the ridge formed a portion of 

 the bed of an extensive ocean, and it was then enveloped 

 with a series of limestones and clays of great thickness 

 whose representatives may now be traced in Tunis, 

 Malta, Sicily, Italy, and as far as the northernmost 

 limits of the Vienna basin. The evidences which arc 

 offered of the former existence of the central Mediter- 

 ranean land bridge between the two continents show 

 that during the latter part of the Miocene period the 

 bed of the Mediterranean, together with a large area of 

 southern Europe, were slowly elevated. In the Maltese 

 islands are to be found extensive deposits of Globigerina 

 limestones which were laid down in a sea whose depth 

 varied from one thousand to three thousand fathoms ; 

 and these deposits are overlain by a series of marls, 

 clays, and coralline limestones, which were deposited in 

 depths of from one hundred to ten fathoms. 



A similar sequence may be traced in Sicily, Italy, and 

 Austria where the series are overlain, in their turn, by 

 extensive deposits of pebbles, sand, and loess of Pliocene 

 age. The Pliocene period was a time of great unrest 

 for the central Mediterranean. 



It witnessed tho birth of Etna, and the re-emergenco 

 of the land bridge between Europe and Africa. The 

 submergence of western Europe and of the greater 

 portion of the Mediterranean set in at its close, and, 

 besides forming the islands of Malta and Sicily, it laid 

 down the breccias and loess, whicli extend over such huge 

 tracts from the Urals to the Pillars of Heracles. 



Proofs of these physical changes arc reflected in tiic 

 sequence of the beds of the district, in tlic zoological 

 contrasts and affinities of the fossils, and in the mingling 

 of northern and southern forms of animal and ])lant life, 

 fossil and recent, in the caves and superlicial deposits on 

 either shore of the Mediterranean. 



The central Mediterranean barrier is now in part sub- 

 merged, the only visible renuiants being Sicily, the 

 Maltese islands, and a few islets off the African coast, 

 but the depth of the submergence is not great, being 

 least between Malta and Sicily, and greatest between 

 Malta and the African coast. An elevation of this 

 portion of the Mediterranean floor to a height of sixty 

 fathoms would re-establish the old continental con- 

 nection. 



The region offers a rich field of research to the geolo- 

 gist, and its problems suggest many interesting questions 

 to the antiquarian. Rude stone monuments, implements, 

 burial places and other records of the existence of primi- 

 tive man in the area are surprisingly numerous. VVithin 

 the last twenty-five years attempts have been made to 

 classify the relics that have been found, and to trace out 

 the histories of the peoples who originated them. To 

 a certain extent the work has been successful, but much 

 still remains to be done in the direction of determining 

 whence the people came and the part which the great 

 land bridge between the two continents played in their 

 migrations. Remains of the Neolithic or later Stone Age 

 folk have been found in every part of Sicily. Some of 

 the most interesting were e.xhumed by Palumbo from a 

 crevice near Caltanisetta, and by Fiorini from the Mon- 

 tagna Grande near Palermo. 



In 1890 a series of Neolithic caves was explored at 

 Isnello in the province of Palermo. One cavern was 

 nearly filled witli human bones : the remainder con- 

 tained an abundance of ornaments, stone weapons, and 

 the ashes of cave fires. A cave was discovered in 

 1891 at Catania, containing the remains of a fire, a col- 

 lection of mammalian bones, several human jaws, and 

 a number of flint implements. 



The origin of the flint offered some difficulty at first, 

 as it was not then known to occur in any Sicilian forma- 

 tion. During a journey through Sicily in 1893 I traced 

 it to the limestone deposits in the Val di Noto, and in the 

 ravines at Modica and Ragusa, where it occurs inter- 

 stratified widi bands and concretionary masses of chert 

 or phatanite in the Miocene rocks of the district. Pro- 

 ceeding westward to Sardinia, numbers of artificial caves, 

 formerly used by the primitive Sardinians as tombs and 

 dwelling places, occur in the sides of the hills and 

 valleys. These caves vary greatly in size and character 

 in different parts of the island, but among the natives 

 they are known by the one name, domes di gianas. They 

 are always found in proximity to the megalithic nuraghi, 

 but they antedate these ruins by long ages, and belong 

 at least to the later Neolithic period. The Neolithic 

 races made their first appearance on the Mediterranean 

 shores at the close of tho Glacial, or so called Post-glacial 

 period, and no evidences of an earlier existence either 

 here or elsewhere have yet been forthcoming. Their 

 predecessors, the Paleolithic folk, lived in southern 



