CAUSE FOR THK ORIGIN OP THE TRADITIOX OP THE FLOOD. 277 



caves of Sicily arrest attention from the extraordinary 

 quantity of bones of Hippopotami (most of them broken, 

 and belonging to hundreds of individuals) which were 

 found in connexion with them. Twenty tons of these 

 bones were shipped from the one cave of San Giro, near 

 Palermo, Avithin the tirst six months of working-, and they 

 Avere 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 

 predaceous animals could have brought together or left 

 such a collection, and though Hysenoe lived on the island, 

 they have left no traces of their presence, nor marks of 

 their teeth, in this wonderful mass of bones. This 

 breccia has been classed with the breccia of bone-caves, 

 but the bones are not gnawed as is the case with the 

 bones of the caves, and, besides, they are tlie bones almost 

 exclusively of Hippopotami, of which the remains are very 

 rare in caves. The only other suggestion that has been 

 made is that the bones are those of successive generations 

 of Hippopotami which went there to die. But this is not the 

 habit of the animal, and besides the bones are those of 

 animals of all ages down to the foetus, nor do the bones show 

 traces of weathering or exposure. 



The explanation which suggests itself to me is founded 

 on the local topographical features of the island. The 

 plain of Palermo is encircled by an amphitheatre of hills, 

 rising to the height of 2,000 to 3,000 feet, and presenting 

 mural precipices towards the plain. The Caves are situated 

 near the base of this escarpment, and at San Giro the breccia 

 extends to some distance in front and on either side of the cave. 

 AVhen, therefore, the island was submerged, the animals in 

 the plain of Palermo would naturally retreat, as the waters 

 advanced, deeper into the amphitheatre of hills until they 

 found themselves embayed, as in a seine, with promontories 

 running out to sea on either side, and a mural precipice in 

 front. As the area became more and more circumscribed the 

 animals must have thronged together in vast multitudes, 

 crushing into the more accessible caves, and swarming over 

 the ground at their entrance, until overtaken by the waters 

 and destroyed. A few of the more agile animals may have 

 escaped to higher unsubmerged ground inland, for, though 

 the remains of JJeer, O.v, Bear, and Felidai occur, they are 

 exceedingly scarce : but the unwieldy Hippopotami perished 

 in hundreds. As the land afterwards emerged by intermittent 



