MALTESE CAVES. 259 



Elephant" (Elephas melitensis), which were found jammed between large 

 blocks of limestone ; their chipped and fractured condition, together with that 

 of subsequent teeth and bones found in the same situation, clearly testify to 

 the rough usage they had sustained from having been rolled along with stones 

 and earth. The point therefore where the above remains were discovered 

 was almost directly below the caves, and within a few feet of the sea- 

 level. It is apparent, moreover, that the remains were deposited at a time 

 when the depression was either taking place, or at least when it was below 

 the level of the caves, else how could the fragments of the Lower Limestone 

 have found their way into the deposit, seeing that the caves are situated at 

 or about the uppermost limit of the Lower Limestone bed ? 



7. Before proceeding to give an account of the deposits of the Mnaidra 

 Cave, it appears to me requisite that I should describe the chief particulars in 

 connexion with the contents of the two other caves in its immediate vicinity, 

 in order that the members of the Association may fully realize all the pheno- 

 mena presented by the former. This I shall now do as briefly as possible. 



8. The Malak Cave was discovered in 1858, but its outlet was destroyed 

 and deposits disturbed, and the greater portion of them removed before any 

 geologist examined it. The quarrymen who found it stated to me that it 

 formed a simple excavation of an oval shape, and had a small opening looking 

 on the afore-mentioned terrace-cliff. Its roof was seemingly entire (but that 

 has not been proved). On its floor there was a hard conglomerate formed of 

 light blue and red clays, intermixed with very rounded and water-worn stones, 

 belonging to the parent rock only. Throughout this deposit, in great disorder, 

 were strewn teeth and bones of two species of Hippopotamus, together with a 

 few bones of large birds. One solitary lower molar of the Pigmy Elephant 

 was found by me among the debris. It was very much worn, and adhered 

 to the rounded pebble with which it had doubtless been rolled. This is the 

 only instance I know where the Pigmy Elephant's remains have been found 

 in connexion with the Hippopotamus. Not allowing for w r hat had been re- 

 moved by visitors and lost or destroyed, I counted the straight tusks of no 

 less than thirty Hippopotami among the debris and in public and private 

 collections, all I may add, procured from a deposit not exceeding a few yards in 

 circumference, and certainly not more than three feet in thickness. No traces 

 of gnawing were noticed on any of the remains I have examined, but many 

 teeth and bones bore signal marks of having been much rolled. I may here 

 state that in another deposit of Hippopotamus remains, found many years since 

 at the entrance of the Melleha Valley, at the N.E. side of Malta (possibly 

 also in a cave), they presented the exact appearances disclosed by those from 

 Malak (t\ e. both as to the nature of the deposit and condition of the remains). 

 Upon the top of the Hippopotamus remains of the Malak was a stalagmite 

 sparsely mixed with red and blue clays, where abundant remains of the 

 Gigantic Dormouse (JMyoocus melitensis) had been gradually introduced during 

 the period that the cave was also being filled by calcareous drippings and soil. 

 The bones of this rodent were also much broken and mixed in great disorder; 

 teeth and jaws predominating, and just as I have seen the bones and teeth of 

 the Egyptian Jerboa strewing the bottoms of caves in that country, after 

 having been ejected in pellets from the craw of the Horned Owl (Stria: asca- 

 laphus). So much for the Malak Cave, which, as regards the order and nature 

 of its organic remains and deposits on its floor, differed entirely from the 

 Middle and Mnaidra Caves. 



9. The deposits of the Middle and also the Mnaidra Cave were very simi- 

 lar. On their floors at the entrances were found the usual white calcareous 



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