242 Dorothea M. A. Bate— 



extent on tbe northern slopes, this secondary cliff-line is absent on 

 that side, which may account for the fact that no osseous remains 

 were found or heard of on the seaward aspect of these hills. 



It has been previously noted ^ that several of the deposits found 

 in the north of the island are now no longer enclosed in caves, the 

 walls and roofs of which have partially or entirely disappeared, 

 probably on account of the very rapid atmospheric erosion which 

 takes place in barren limestone districts in this climate.- In each 

 of these, with one exception, there is at least one cave-wall still 

 remaining. The exception is found in that of Haghios Chrysostomos, 

 below the peak of Buffa Vento, which is more isolated from the 

 main mountain mass than any of the others, and is situated in an 

 irregular line of limestone rocks which crest a spur projecting into 

 the overlying formation, which is locally known as the " Hummocks." 

 Herr Alfred Bergeat, who studied the geology of Cyprus, mentions, 

 in a paper published in 1891,^ the mammalian remains near the 

 monastery of Haghios Chrysostomos, which he considers occur, not 

 in a cave-deposit, but in a breccia* of large extent. This opinion 

 was probably due to the almost entire disappearance of the limestone 

 cliff-line which formerly rose above the Kythrasan formation, but 

 both the presence of very similar examples in the vicinity, and 

 also the stalagmitic nature of the deposit, which was demonstrated 

 during the excavations made here, appear to leave no doubt as to 

 its original deposition in a cavern. 



The finding of the remains of this the smallest of the Hippopotami 

 proved, as Dr. Forsyth Major has already pointed out,* to be the 

 re-discovery of an almost forgotten species, first noticed by Cuvier^ 

 as long ago as the early part of last century, though the locality 

 from which it came was not previously known. Although adding 

 to the number of the pigmj'- Hij^popotami of the Mediterranean 

 islands, H. minutus rather unexpectedly proves to have apparently 

 little affinity with these, but to be instead more closely allied to 

 the still surviving Liberian species, which has been considered by 

 several authorities, notably the late Sir William Flower,'' to be 

 sufficiently distinct to form a separate genus (Chceropsis), in which 

 the Cypriote form would now probably have to be included, for, 

 as Dr. Forsyth Major anticipated,® the further material obtained 

 since the publication of his paper has shown it to be likewise 

 tetraprotodont. 



1 Op. cit., p. 348. 



^ The same phenomeuon has beeu found to occur among the Pleistocene cave 

 deposits of Crete. See Geol. Mag., Dec. V, Vol. II, May, 1905, pp. 193-202. 



•* " Zur Geologic der Massigen Gesteine der Insel CjiJern " : Tschermak 

 mineralogische und Petrographische Mittheilungen, Baud xii (1891), pp. 278-9. 



* Included in the Kjiihrasan Series of Messrs. Bellamy & Jukes-Bro\vne. See 

 " The Geoloiry of Cj-prus," W. Brendon, Plymouth, 1905. 



5 Geol. Mag., Dec. IV, Vol. IX, May, 1902, pp. 198-9, and Proc. Zool. Soc, 

 3rd June, 1902, pp. 107-111. 



6 " Ossements Fossiles," 2ud ed., i, pp. 322-331 (1821). 

 •» Proc. Zool. Soc, 1887, p. 612. 



* Proc. Zool. Soc, 3rd June, 1902, pp. 107-111. 



