of the Balearic Islands. 339 



plains, which, by its means, are protected from the winds that sweep 

 almost continuously across the adjacent island of Menorca. The 

 smaller of the two Jurassic masses occupies the eastern corner of the 

 island from the Bay of Alcudia to the Bay of Arta, where this 

 formation leaves the coast and continues as a narrow strip to a little 

 beyond the village of Concos. A few small outcrops of this rock 

 are also met with in the central plain. This central portion of the 

 island is composed of a Miocene Limestone which extends to the 

 southernmost point, Cabo Salinas, from which it forms the coast- 

 line for a considerable distance in either direction. 



JS^umberless caves occur in each of the above-mentioned limestone 

 formations, and Mallorca is justly celebrated for its wonderful caverns, 

 which often extend over very large areas. Many have been 

 exhaustively explored by M. E. A. Martel, who has published 

 interesting accounts of his investigations in Spelunca. It will 

 suffice here to mention that the most important and best known 

 are those of Arta and the Drach, both situated on the coast and 

 ill the Jurassic and Miocene Limestones respectively. The latter 

 contains a considerable amount of fresh water, and in 1904 the 

 researches of M. Racovitza were rewarded by the discovery of an 

 aquatic blind Isopod ascribed to a new genus ^ as well as other 

 representatives of an interesting fauna. Other grottoes of considerable 

 size are those of Pirata, one at Orient in the northern range, one 

 discovered recently near Cabo de Menorca, and doubtless many 

 unknown to more than local fame. Most of the above and many 

 other large caves were visited, but in none were indications of an 

 ossiferous deposit discovered. 



Six Pleistocene ossiferous deposits were discovered in Mallorca, 

 of which the following is a list: — 



1. Near Porto Christo. 



2. Cave at harbour mouth of Puerto Colon. 



3. Cala Figuereta, near Santany. 



4. Cave, Fuente de la Cala, near Capdepera. 



5. Cuevas de los Colombs, Cap Farueh. 



6. Cave near Cabo de Menorca, Alcudia. 



The first three were situated in sea cliffs of much worn Miocene 

 Limestone and were very fragmentary, yielding no specimens worth 

 preserving. 'No. 3 was represented by but a single limb-bone, 

 probably that of Mi/otraqus. attached to the rocks only just out 

 of the water in calm weather. No. 1 is at the summit of the cliffs 

 a few yards from their edge ; what is left of the bone breccia lies 

 between layers of stalagmite and measured 6 by 2 or 3 feet. An 

 isolated bone a few yards distant indicated the originally greater 

 extent of the deposit. Its appearance suggests that it Avas formed 

 in a fissure, but in this connexion it may be worth recording that 

 near the clifp edge for a distance of about half a mile from this 

 spot there are innumerable traces of the bases of stalagmites and 

 of stalagmitic layers. These may extend uninterruptedly for 

 a hundred yards or more, and suggest the former existence of 

 a system of caverns and galleries of vast extent. 



^ Bull. Soe. Zool. France, torn, xxx, No. 4, p. 72 et seq., Juillet, 1905. 



