278 JOSEPH TRESTWICH, F.R.S.^ F.G.S.^ ON A TOSSIBLE 



stages, tliG rocky debris, followed by large blocks from the 

 sides of the hills, were hurled down, crushing and smashing 

 the bones, which are, with few exceptions, broken into thou- 

 sands of fragments. I Avould accouut for tlie enormous 

 numbers of Hippopotami by the facit that, after the foruiation 

 of the Raised Beaches, there was a considerable elevation of 

 the coast, which led, as in more North-western Europe, to a 

 large increase of the kind area : so that the plain of Palermo 

 may then have been of greater extent, and the rivers much 

 larger. 



Malta.* 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 

 J lippopotamus, and the absence of other usual Quaternary 

 ]\lammalia, the faunal remains have a distinct local colouring. 

 They indicate that j\Ialta had been long isolated before the 

 spread of the Rubble-drift ; but, nevertheless, it is evident 

 that it did not escape the catastrophe Avhich 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 which covers the hill tops. 

 This breccia, which contains in places remains of the pigmy 

 Eh'pliant, I take to be the representative of the " head " at 

 ]5righton and Sangatte, only in this instance the height 

 of the escarpment has prevented its being entirely masked 

 as were the old cliffs at those places. It resembles closely 

 the breccia on the Mentone slopes. It is probable that 

 this island, no part of which exceeds a height of cSOO feet, 

 was entirely submerged, for not a single species nor even 

 one genus of its Quaternary Mammalia are now living on 

 the island, nor did any of its pecuhar forms pass to the 

 adjacent lands. 



Greece. The surface deposits of Turkey and Southern 

 Russia are seemingly m general accordance with those I have 

 iust described. The rubble beds are, however, better deve- 

 loped in Greece, and are there occasionally ossiferous. An 

 angular rubble forms great sheets extending to the shore, 



* Admiral Spratt, Quart. Jcntrn. G'eol. &oc., vol. xxiii. Dr. Leitli 

 Adams, The Site Vallet/ and Malta, p. IGl. 



