Adams—Fossil Elephant of Malta. 489 
able to the native intelligence or learning,—permission was at last 
obtained through the kind intervention of His Excellency Sir 
Henry Storks, and the clearing out of the Gandia fissure was begun 
on the 14th June, 1865, at the expense of the Malta University, 
where the fossils obtained have been deposited. I was requested to 
superintend the excavations, and with the able assistance of my 
friends, Mr. Welch, 22nd Regiment, and Dr. Carruana, LL.D., se- 
cretary and curator to the College Museum, the entire débris was 
carefully examined, and the work completed in a few days. 
The Gandia fissure was found to be a funnel-shaped hollow, 15 
feet deep, and about 94 feet in length at the entrance. The average 
thickness might have been originally from 4 to 5 feet; but as a 
portion of it had been removed with one of the sides of the fissure 
during the quarrying in 1857, the last measurement could not be 
ascertained with accuracy. ‘Tracing the rent along the surface of 
the rock for upwards of 200 feet, it was found to be a vertical 
fissure, with the opposite sides almost in close apposition, excepting 
at the fossiliferous gap, and others of smaller dimensions, which were 
seen here and there along its course. The sides of the fissure were 
perfectly smooth, and coated with a thin layer of stalagmite, forming 
polished surfaces, doubtless resulting in part from friction of the 
opposing sides during oscillations of level, as can be clearly seen on 
many of the ‘slips’ and ‘fissures’ in numerous other quarries. 
After the removal of the rubbish occupying the side of the fissure, 
which had been taken away in quarrying, a mass of red earth and 
stones, 8 feet in height by 94 feet long, and from 24 to 34 feet in 
thickness, was seen adhering to the remaining side of the fissure. 
The stones were all composed of the parent rock, and varied in size 
from a few inches to two or three feet in circumference, and were, 
for the most part, rounded and much decayed, from having been long 
in the red earth : others, however, had become hardened into a pale 
green limestone, by the absorption of water charged with carbonate 
of lime—an occurrence common to fragments of this rock that have 
been exposed to the slow percolation of lime-water in caves and 
elsewhere. Both stones and earth were firmly packed, as if by 
considerable pressure. From top to bottom, but perhaps more so 
near the former, were interspersed teeth and bones of the Maltese 
Elepbant, indiscriminately with the bones of very large and smaller 
birds, and jaws, teeth, and bones of the Myoxis Melitensis. No 
shells were found. ‘The long bones of the quadrupeds and birds 
were all broken and in fragments, excepting those of the feet, which 
were usually entire. ‘The elephants’ teeth, although fractured in 
many cases, showed no traces of having been rolled; and from the 
perfect condition of their macherides and fangs, it was evident they 
had not been brought from a long distance. The same was observed 
with reference to the articulating surfaces of the birds’ bones, which 
as a rule were also very entire. The perfect state of disorder in 
which the remains were found preeluded the idea that the elephants, 
at least, had fallen into the fissure, but proved, on the contrary, that 
their remains, and those of the other animals, had been swept in by 
the agency of water. As further exemplifying this, it is worthy of 
