J. H. Cooke—Ursus ferox in Malta. 67 
VI.—Own tHe OccurRENGE or Ursus FEROX IN THE PLEISTOCENE 
or Matra. 
By Joun H. Cooxz, F.G.S., ete. 
HE labours of the late Admiral Spratt, R.N., and of the late 
Professor Leith Adams, F.R.S., in the cavern deposits of the 
Maltese Islands were rewarded by the finding of a unique and in- 
teresting land fauna, among which were Hlephants, Hippopotam1, 
Land-tortoises, gigantic Dormice, and aquatic Birds, the presence of 
which in so limited an area was incompatible with the present 
existing physical conditions of the Islands. While carrying on his 
work of investigation in a cave in the Zebbug Gorge, Uied el Khir, 
in 1859, Spratt noticed that many of the remains of Elephants that 
were exhumed presented the appearance of having been fiercely 
gnawed,’ and later on when Adams was excavating the Mnaidra gap 
it was observed that many of the elephantine remains were ina 
similar condition. 
From the situations in which the remains were found, and their 
condition, these gentlemen inferred that carnivora had lived in the 
district contemporaneously with the hippopotami; but notwithstand- 
ing the most diligent research extending over a period of twenty 
years, the only tangible evidences in support of their inferences 
were these gnawed bones.” 
During the Spring of the present year I was engaged in carrying 
out, with the aid of a grant from the Royal Society, some exca- 
vations in the Har Dalam cavern, a subterraneous gallery situated 
in a gorge of the same name in the eastern extremity of Malta, 
and after having excavated six large trenches and obtained some 
hundreds of bones of Hippopotamus pentlandi, Elephas mnaidriensis, 
Cervus barbarus, and numerous other animals, I had the satisfaction 
of discovering an entire ramus of the lower jaw of a Bear, with its 
canine and molars in situ, as well as five other canines belonging to 
other individuals of the same species. 
The trench in which the jaw and teeth were found is situated on 
the left-hand side of the cavern, at a distance of fifty feet from the 
entrance. The floor was strewn to a considerable depth with large 
boulders, which in some places were heaped up against the sides of 
the cavern to a height of from two to three feet. Having cleared 
a space of about thirty square yards, I commenced operations on a 
friable marly loam, which in this part of the cavern takes the place, 
as the surface layer, of the red soil that is found farther within. 
The first evidence of the presence of the carnivore was a large 
canine, the fang of which was unfortunately broken by a blow from 
the pick of one of the workmen, before the tooth was noticed. This 
discovery was soon followed by that of a complete ramus of the 
lower jaw, with its molars, and canine teeth in situ. The peculiar 
nature of the matrix in which it was embedded unfortunately pre- 
1 Proc. Geol. Soc. vol. xxiii. p. 288. 
2 In a collection of fossils sent by Capt. Spratt’ to Dr. Falconer, a small canine of 
a carnivorous animal of the size of a fox was present. 
