156 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



convince thmselves that the latter are daily being 

 augmented in proportion as new deposits are accu- 

 mulated by the action of currents of water. These 

 observations which complete, without controverting, 

 the researches of Dr. Buckland, have led to the dis- 

 tinction which is now made between osseous caverns 

 and osseous breccias, of which we have just spoken. 



We must class amongst the latter the grotto of 

 San-Ciro. Before it was dismantled it presented 

 the appearance of a slope of about twenty feet in 

 height, abutting against the side of the mountain, and 

 composed almost entirely of bones agglutinated by 

 calcareous infiltrations or cemented by a small 

 quantity of quartzose sand and indurated clay. It 

 seemed as if the entrance of the cavern had been 

 closed in and the interior almost entirely filled up by 

 a rock of a particular composition. There were 

 the remains of elephants, hippopotami, deer, stags, 

 and several kinds of dogs intermingled with sea 

 shells. This latter circumstance, added to the traces 

 of perforations in the walls of the cavern, which may 

 be attributed to certain marine molluscs, led Dr. 

 Christie to conjecture that this fissure must have 

 been formed below the waters of the ocean, and that 

 it must have been subsequently upheaved by some 

 of those convulsions of nature of which Sicily every- 

 where affords undoubted evidence. 



Whatever the true explanation of its occurrence 

 may be, the mass of organic remains accumulated in 

 this spot was at all events so considerable that it 

 awakened the speculative genius of certain English 

 travellers. The cavern of San-Ciro was converted into 



