Search for Pleistocene Mammalia in Crete. 201 



excavated their courses in places to a depth of eight or ten feet, 

 ^showing that the ground to this extent consists of reddish yellow 

 and grey clays topped by a layer of darker soil varying in thickness 

 from a couple of inches to one and a half or two feet. At the 

 'Western extremity of Katharo, where the hills are lowest, the 

 streams have broken through the rocky bai'rier, cutting a deep and 

 narrow gorge by which the accumulated waters find a way to the 

 more extensive upland basin of Lassethe, which lies nearly a thousand 

 feet below. 



My guide first took me to the top of a rounded hillock in the 

 •eastern half of the valley, where a few fragmentary remains were 

 found lying on the surface, where some debris evidently of volcanic 

 origin, such as lava, etc., was also observed. During the next few 

 days trial trenches were dug in a number of places in this vicinity, 

 teeth and bones of a pigmy hippopotamus being found in varying 

 -quantities and at different depths. At the spot shown in the 

 photograph (Plate X) the remains occurred somewhat sparingly 

 in a band of bluish grey clay about one and a half to two feet thick. 

 In a channel cut by a stream through yellowish clay others were 

 found in great numbers at a depth of six to eight feet below the 

 surface. Here the infiltration of water made them very rotten and 

 difficult to extricate intact ; however, eventually a number of teeth 

 and jaws and a large series of perfect limb bones were obtained. 



The presence of these hippopotamus remains shows that the 

 deposit in which they occur is almost certainly of fresh-water 

 origin, and this is easy to believe when it is remembered that before 

 a channel was worn through the barrier of surrounding hills there 

 was probably no outlet for the accumulated waters, which in that 

 •case would transform the valley into a lake or swamp, according 

 to the season of the year. A view of the neighbouring enclosed 

 plain of Lassethe encourages this idea, for here the only egress 

 for the streams is by means of a swallow-hole, or khonos ; 

 should anything cause this to become blocked the drainage of both 

 .Katharo and Lassethe would be forced to remain in the latter, soon 

 forming it into a marsh and possibly a lake after the melting of 

 the snow off the surrounding mountains. Admiral Spratt mentions^ 

 that in spite of a swallow-hole in the upland basin of Omalo, in 

 the Aspro Vouno, the centre of it is converted into a lake for some 

 months during the winter. 



Considering the ordinary habitat of the hippopotamus, it is curious 

 to find numerous remains of a small species at the unusual height 

 of nearly 4,000 feet above sea-level, and that amongst rugged and 

 barren mountains. The above-mentioned author considered ^ that 

 their occurrence in this situation " involves the necessity of con- 

 ceiving great physical changes in the relative levels of sea and land 

 since they existed in Crete." His suggestion of a depression in 

 this part of the island to the extent of some 3,500 feet would seem 



1 Op. cit., vol. ii, p. 176. 



2 Ibid., p. 387. 



