Search for Pleistocene Mammalia in Crete. 197 



antelope were most plentiful, while in a lower one horns and teeth 

 of a deer predominated. 



In the cliffs less than a hundred yards to the south-west is another 

 cave which can only be reached from the sea. This is smaller and 

 narrower than the one described above, and contains only a very 

 fragmentary remnant of an accumulation of mammalian remains. 

 Besides this some few specimens were brought in by one of my men, 

 who said he had procured them from a cave on the east coast of 

 the Grabusa promontory and about two hours walk from Kalivjannee, 

 'but I was unable to go and verify this information. Previously, 

 when at the eastern base of this Akrotiri, a great number of fossilised 

 remains of a large echinoderm were noticed in the low sea-cliffs at 

 this spot. 



Before leaving Mesoghia/ whence the Kutri cave was worked, 

 a visit was paid to Sphinari on the coast at some hours 

 distance to the south. Its position is somewhat isolated, and it 

 is claimed by the inhabitants to be an outlying village of the 

 Enneakhoria. A walk of less than an hour along the cliffs on the 

 south side of the small bay brought us to the partially submerged 

 remains of a cave deposit, now almost entirely destroyed. Of the 

 •cave itself this is the only trace to be seen ; some teeth and bones of 

 ruminants and part of the dentition of a rodent were obtained here. 



No other deposits were found west of Khania, but before de- 

 scribing those discovered in the east of the island a few remarks 

 on the former may not be out of place. Apart from the interest 

 of the mammalian remains contained in them the situation and 

 •condition of these deposits suggest a number of problems as to the 

 probable method of their origin, to which it seems difficult to supply 

 any satisfactory explanation. The Kutri cave may be noticed with 

 more detail, presenting as it does phenomena somewhat similar to 

 the smaller Kutri cave, that near Eavduka, and the deposit 

 close to Sphinari. The lowest trace of bones is only about 10 feet 

 above the sea, while the whole floor bears unmistakable traces of 

 having been largely broken up and to a great extent washed away. 

 On the walls of the cave is a distinct sea-level mark now about 

 -20 feet above the water. In confirmation of this it seems to have 

 been satisfactorily proved by the observations of Admiral Spratt^ 

 that a local ^ " deplacement negatif " to the extent of 22 feet has 

 taken place at this point of the coast, and that loithin historical times, 

 making it a matter of certainty that this has occurred since the 

 accumulation of the ossiferous deposit.* A similar alteration of the 



^ This is an isolated homestead which, although close to Kalivjannee, is called 

 Mesoghia, no doubt after the villages of that name to which it probably belongs. 



- Op.cit., vol. ii, chap, xis, pp. 195-6, etc. Suess also gives a list of records in 

 this connection ; see " La Face de la Terre," vol. ii, pp. 700-1 and 740. 



* That this was only local is proved by the fact that in the east of the island 

 a contrary movement has occurred also within historic times. See Spratt, op. cit., 

 vol. ii, pp. 21-2, etc., and Suess, op. cit., vol. li, pp. 700-1. 



* Admiral Spratt even says in discussing the disappearance of the harbour at 

 Tripiti, on the south coast, which was described by the author of the ' ' Stadiasmus, ' ' that 

 this is " another proof of the great upheaval along the coast having taken place since 

 a late Roman period, the date of the ' Stadiasmus ' being considered to be about 

 that time" (op. cit., vol. ii, p. 246). 



