X. Description of the Remains of three extinct Species of Elephant, collected by Capt. 
Spratt, C.B., RN., in. the Ossiferous Cavern of Zebbug, in the Island of Malta. 
By Grorce Busx, F.RS.; partly from the Notes of the late H. Fauconer, M.D., 
F.R.S. 
Read June 27th, 1865. 
[Piates XLIV. to LIII.} 
§ I. Introductory. 
IN the following observations I have confined myself principally to the anatomical 
characters of certain proboscidian remains which were collected some years since (1859) 
by Captain Spratt, C.B., R.N., at that time in command of H.M. Surveying Ship 
‘Medina,’ in an ossiferous cavern some distance inland in the Island of Malta, under 
circumstances which will be fully detailed by that gentleman elsewhere *. 
As any extended geological account of the locality would be here out of place, it will 
suffice for the present occasion to state, from information supplied by Captain Spratt, 
that the cavern in question is situated on the north side of a rocky valley separating the 
town or casal of Zebbug from another town about a mile distant, called Siggieni. 
The cavern, when first opened, was filled to the roof with yellow and grey sandy clay, and 
it had no stalagmitic floor. Amidst this deposit, which had evidently been washed in 
by water, were numerous fragments of bones and teeth of at least two species of 
Elephant, manifestly widely distinct in size, some of the bones indicating an animal of 
very dwarf dimensions, as compared with all other known forms, recent or extinct. 
Besides these elephant-remains, those of other apparently extinct animals were also met 
with, all mingled with subangular but not waterworn fragments of the limestone rock. 
The cavern ran nearly horizontally from the face of the ravine or inland cliff, having a 
short branch terminating in a small chamber. It varied in height from 43 to 54, and 
in width from 14 to 24 feet. 
Amongst the other bones associated with those of the Elephant were many of 
aquatic Birds, and especially of a large extinct species of Swan (Cygnus falconeri, Park.), 
a few jaws and other bones of perhaps more than one species of Dormouse, one of which 
* Since this paper was read, Captain Spratt has communicated a paper on the “Geological relations of the 
Zebbug Cavern,” which will be found in the 23rd yolume of the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (1867). 
Two Reports, also, on other ossiferous Cayerns in Malta, in which numerous remains of Elephants and other 
animals have been collected by Dr. Leith Adams, have appeared in the Reports of the British Association for 1865 
and 1866; and I should also state that Dr. Leith Adams, who has been for some years indefatigable in his re- 
searches in the caves and fissures of Malta, has made an immense collection, more especially of Elephantine 
remains, an account of which, when they have been more fully worked out, will add very considerably to our 
knowledge of the various species, and more especially, as it seems to me, of the largest one, and of . melitensis. 
—June, 1867. 
VOL. VI.—PART V. 2K 
