ON MALTESE FOSSIUFEROUS CAVES. 459 



filled the cavity in the shape of a talus, narrowing at the upper and inner 

 extremity, and spreading outwards towards the entrance. There were, there- 

 fore, three distinct kinds of arrangement of the fossiliferous deposits : — Ist. 

 When water passed down its floor, bearing along with it small pebbles and 

 fragments and bones of teeth of the proboscidian, rodent, birds, and shells. 

 2nd. A sudden rush of water containing blocks of sandstone from the slope 

 above, soU, and portions or whole carcasses of the animals just mentioned, and, 

 finally, the scourings of the rock-surfaces and whatever organic remains and 

 debris were lying thereon. The mode of arrangement of the deposits indi- 

 cated that they had been borne down the west and north sides, from the cir- 

 cumstance that the debris and remains were piled wp pell-mell along the con- 

 cave eastern wall, the most perfect remains being found near the inner 

 extremity of the gap, whilst fragments of bones increased towards the entrance. 

 On the slope above, in the direction just indicated, were discovered several 

 sandstone blocks Ijdng in the pot-holes and waterworn crevices of the lower 

 limestone, as if they had been deposited there at the same time that the masses 

 were carried into the gap. Although many bones, especially those of the 

 feet, showed every appearance of having being introduced in the flesh, there 

 were not a few that testified by their cracked exterior and surface-decay, that 

 they had been bleaching in the open air before they were conveyed into the 

 gap. At all events the organic remains could not have been brought from 

 any great distance, as is exemplified by the perfect state of preservation of 

 the majority of the teeth and bones of the proboscidian. In my last Iteport I 

 estimated that remains of upwards of fiJfty individual elephants had been 

 identified up to the termination of the fii'st series of explorations ; since then 

 more than 100 elephants' teeth alone have been added to the above, besides 

 many important bones of the skeleton. The remains of the gigantic dormouse, 

 more especially at the upper extremity of the gap, were so numerous that 

 there was scarcely a square inch of the lower stratum that did not contain 

 abundant relics of this rodent. 



(2) Gandia Fissure. — The jihenomena represented by the Mnaidra gap were 

 again repeated inland in an ossiferous fissure in the calcareous sandstone in 

 the district of Gandia, three miles to the east. Here during the summer of 

 1865 I cleared out a gaping rent, communicating with the surface, and filled 

 to the depth of 8 feet with red earth and masses of the parent rock, among 

 which were discovered teeth of upwards of sixteen individual elephants, of 

 nearly aU ages, together with bones of the rodent, and those of water-birds, 

 including species of very large proportions, as evinced by the length and 

 dimensions of the articulating surfaces of the bones — the breadth across the 

 condyles of one femur being 2 inches. It is worthy of note that aU the ossi- 

 ferous cavities and deposits hitherto discovered in the Maltese Islands have 

 been either in the doAvncast or denuded districts. The latter embrace nearly 

 two-thirds of the island of Malta, viz. the whole of that portion eastward of 

 a line passing about N. and S. through Civita Vecchia. It is computed that 

 a thickness of from 400 to 500 feet of limestone, sand, marl, and sandstone 

 has entirely disappeared from the above locality. In some places the sand- 

 stone has been entirely denuded, bringing into view the lower limestone, which, 

 from its hardness, has retained the traces of sea-action on its surface. 



(3) St. Leonardo Fissure. — Another example of a similar description to the 

 two last described was afforded by the contents of St. Leonardo Fissure, situated 

 in the calcareous sandstone on the N.E. coast of Malta, and close to the sea, 

 which, however, had washed away the greater portion of the contents before 

 my attention was directed to the locality. Here, under precisely the same 

 conditions us just mentioned, I discovered teeth and fragments of a skeleton 

 of a young elephant. Such accumulations, either with or without organic 



