258 report — 1865. 



in the higher parts of the islands. Intermediate varieties of both, consequent 

 on the destruction of the rock formations, are also common, but it is in the 

 deposits of one or other of the first two sorts that the remains of the extinct 

 fossil fauna are usually found. These are generally intermixed with angular 

 or rounded fragments of the rocks, forming compact breccias or conglome- 

 rates, which in the caves are often covered up by stalagmitic infiltrations and 

 red earth ; again, in fissures and hollows, large and loose accumulations of 

 red soil, stones, and animal remains, huddled together in great disorder, display 

 states of arrangement clearly referable to aqueous agency, and that of no 

 common order and intensity. 



4. Turning to the caverns, many may be said to be merely water-worn rents 

 or fissures hollowed out at some period anterior to the introduction of the 

 deposits and organic remains ; for in many I have examined there existed 

 communications with the surface by means of either perpendicular or lateral 

 rents, through which their contents might have been introduced, or at least 

 water in sufficient quantity to have rearranged any remains that were lying 

 on the floors of the caves. 



5. The subject of this Report I have named Mnaidra Cave*, after a re- 

 markable ruin of that name in the immediate vicinity (supposed to have been 

 constructed by the Phoenicians), and also to distinguish it from two other 

 caves close by, one of which, viz. the "Middle Cave," is situated on a terrace- 

 cliff within a few yards of the last and about 12 feet below it, whereas the 

 third, called the " Hippopotamus" " or Malak Cave," opens on the same ter- 

 race cliff with the " Middle Cave," and is 200 feet distant from the Mnaidra 

 Cave. The latter stands on the edge of "a steep declivity overlooking the sea 

 and above-mentioned terrace cliff, and is about 300 feet above the level of the 

 former. Perhaps none of these caves maintain their original dimensions ; for 

 although at the time of their discovery each opened independently of the 

 other, I have since been enabled, in the cases of both the " Malak " and 

 " Middle Cave," to trace their lower deposits outwards from their entrances 

 to the edge of the cliff, a distance of from 60 to 70 feet. It will be under- 

 stood, therefore, that all these caves were situated close together on the side 

 of a limestone cliff which faces the sea on the south-west coast of the island 

 of Malta. 



6. Nowhere in any of the islands forming the Maltese group is there a bet- 

 ter illustration of the disturbances that have brought about the present insular 

 condition of this area than at the point (represented in Plate II.) ; for along 

 the base of the cliff there runs a fault by which the Upper Limestone of the 

 series had been let down several hundred feet, and is now submerged, except- 

 ing a narrow belt that fringes the coast and spreads out into a stony flat west- 

 wards, whilst three miles out at sea the islet of Filfla forms its " outlier." 

 On the surface of the depressed fragment, and washed by the waves, are 

 masses of alluvial deposit and breccia formed of red earth, angular and par- 

 tially rounded stones, of not only the parent rock, but also the Calcareous 

 Sandstone and Lower Limestone, besides small portions of a black limestone 

 rock, nowhere found in situ in the islands. These superficial deposits run up 

 the incline towards the " fine of fault," and are to all appearance the " talus " 

 or washings of the slope above the caves. From among this mass of breccia 

 and loose red earth and stones, my learned friend Dr. Errington, Archbishop of 

 Trebizond, assisted me in removing the upper jaw and teeth of the " Pigmy 



* 'Mnaidra' in Arabic means a "sheepfold," from the fancied resemblance this mega- 

 lithic circle presents to a " sheep or cattle pen." 





